Devotion
by Always NaruIno
Summary: I watched as Naruto fell in love with Sakura. And then, after her, Hinata. Through all that time I just kept wondering, "When will it be my turn?" *NaruIno*
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I obviously do not own Naruto. This story is completely fictional and of my own creation.

 **IMPORTANT**. If you DO NOT support NaruIno and have no tolerance for it, then _get out of here_! I'm sick of reading reviews saying, "It's idiotic to place Ino above Sakura and Hinata." Excuse me but this is my story, my _**fanfiction**_ -it's not real! Saying it that way is rude and I have no tolerance for it at all. You haven't even given my story a try, all you've done is give our unwanted opinion. Goodbye, enjoy your own fanfictions but don't tell me how to write my story in such a rude manner. I'm sorry if this is harsh but I'm really fed up.

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Back when we were 14 I thought Naruto was an idiot. He always came into the flower shop, purchasing some stupid flower to give away to Sakura and confess his undying love for her, only to come return the damn thing because he would be rejected every time. It was a nuisance placing the flower back in its rightful place.

I didn't understand why he kept trying. Sakura was so obviously in love with Sasuke. I thought I was too. To me it didn't make sense why he still had hope. I secretly wished he would give up already so I wouldn't be bothered anymore. But no, Naruto is not a quitter. And I learned that the hard way.

Naruto was always so immature. He was an idiot who always played pranks on everyone. He always talked big but always ended up embarrassing himself. He was tiny too, I was taller than him at the time. I was also more intelligent and an even better ninja. A lot has changed since then.

Naruto's big dream was to become hokage. To show everyone who looked down on him how great he is and that he's capable of such a highly honoured title. At that time I always brushed it off, because who cares? It's Naruto! There's no way a kid like him could do it.

But that's the way things were. Naruto, the idiot prankster who confessed his undying love to Sakura almost every single day. Sakura, completely focused on Sasuke and Sasuke alone to realize anyone else. Sasuke, the boy who didn't care at all about any of us. And Hinata. The girl who loved Naruto.

She was always supportive of him. She was really the only person there for him back then. It's too bad he never realized her back then. Back then, when things were different. So much could have changed had he liked Hinata first. It's just too messed up to really explain.

So I'll tell you this; nearly everyday, that idiot boy comes into our flower shop, searches through all the flowers, ends up picking a red rose every time, and returning it within an hour. Some days I would just pull out a rose and wait for him to come by just so I wouldn't have to be bothered with watching him look through all the selections.

But he _still_ looked around, much to my annoyance. Sometimes I'd yell at him about it, but daddy would always scold me for yelling at a costumer. So usually I yelled at him during school. He always just grinned this goofy little grin and apologized. For some reason I would let it go after he grinned like that.

Then Sasuke left. I was so completely devastated. But not nearly as much as Sakura or Naruto. Those two lashed out at everyone. All they did was blame themselves. They were so angry and lost at first that they both just stopped showing their faces for a while. Then they only spoke to one another.

It wasn't fair though. I was heartbroken too. I wanted to hide away too. I wanted to have someone I could talk to about everything too. But I didn't have one. I showed my face and bared the pain. Because I soon realized I wasn't as pained as I thought. That I hadn't lost someone who mean't a lot to me the way Naruto and Sakura did.

That's when I realized I had it all wrong. I had always been so selfish and naive. Had I realized back then that my true feelings were not for Sasuke, things could have been different.

For some reason I really can not explain, I wanted to go meet with Naruto. I wanted to talk to him, help him. But so many other people were already there. Jiraiya had offered Naruto a chance to travel with him and become stronger. I learned of this information from Shikamaru instead of the source himself.

Why? Because I was too damn chicken shit to talk to him. All those years spent picking on the kid, I couldn't bring myself to approach him. My pride hung on the line. And since I was stupid enough to be so hot headed, I let him go. It's not like it was any of my business anyway.

I never said goodbye. Then again I don't recall ever quite saying a proper hello either.

He left. I won't admit it to anyone, ever, but I missed that idiot. His stupid pranks that got everyone by for the day, his stupid voice shouting across the room, and his stupid face looking at all the flowers. The roses...

That's how I knew Sakura would never be a good match for Naruto. All she ever did was think of Sasuke. That's all she lived for. Sometimes she would voice her concerns for her blonde team mate but it wasn't the same as the numerous times she's voiced her concerns for Sasuke. I think everyone just knew that Naruto would never get the girl.

Hinata on the other hand was a wreck. She was so strong though. She held a good front but whenever I talked to her, she would break. She knew she could trust me. Honestly seeing her like that made me want to break too. I never spoke of Naruto, but I think Hinata knew I was worried just like everyone else.

To be honest anytime the bell from the store would ring I would spring up, hoping to see Naruto. But every single time it would just be someone else. And I tried to look joyful but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Not that it matters anyway. No one will ever know.

I went on dates, I hung out with friends, I went on missions, I worked at the shop, and yet every single damn day there had to be at least one thought of Naruto. Has he eaten? Is he tired? What type of training is he doing now? Is Jiraiya taking him to a club? Has he grown? Has he changed? Is he taller now? What does his voice sound like? And countless other things.

And it was the most frustrating thing too! Because I couldn't understand why the hell I felt that way! I honestly felt like ripping my hair out anytime I thought of him! Because why should I care! He likes Sakura! And he already has another girl worrying too much over him! And I mean nothing to him and he means nothing to me!

That's what the hot headed, stubborn me always argued. It doesn't make sense, because I knew Naruto wouldn't think of me once at all during his training. After all, all I had ever done to him was scold. I was never his friend. Even though I should have been.

Now there he is.

He's talking to a dazed Sakura. I can't blame her. Is this really happening? Is he finally back? That's what I'm thinking too. And Naruto, he stares at Sakura the same way as ever. Full of love. As if he never left. They start walking my way. I look down at my new attire. It's still purple but I changed it up a bit. Will he notice?

Because I definitely notice him and his new outfit. He's taller, too. He's grown up so much. He looks handsome. Although I'll never admit that to anyone. Ever.

As they approach me, I clear my throat and smile wide. I'm about to greet them when I realize they don't see me. They pass right by. I was two inches away from Naruto. And he didn't notice it was me. He didn't even seem to know anyone was alive. I stand there, still frozen in the time that he brushed against my shoulder.

I'm waiting for him to turn around and recognize me, acknowledge me, _do something_ , but he doesn't. Instead I hear him calling out to Hinata. And Kiba and Shino.

My knees grow weak. After these two years of constant worry, he doesn't even know. I run, my back still turned towards the group of laughing friends who catch up with one another. I can feel hot tears sting my eyes. But why? He never mean't anything to me and I sure as hell never mean't anything to him back.

And yet... It hurts. It hurts to know I wasn't important enough to recognize.

And all of that devotion is left unknown.

 **A/N:** _So I guess this can be read as a one-shot but I'm not planning for it to be. What do you guys think?_


	2. Feeling Ignored

I waited. I sat at the counter of the store and waited. Day after day, Naruto didn't come. He knew where to find me, so why wasn't he coming to say hello? Am I really the last person he cares about? Does he even care about me at all? He's even said hello to Choji and Shikamaru. It's really starting to piss me off.

I hear the jingles of the door. I snap my head up, but I'm only greeted with the sight of Choji. I sigh and give my team mate a wave of the hand, "Hey Choji. What's up?"

"Well, Naruto is back!" Choji announces, a wide smile stretching across his face. As if I didn't know. I must not look surprised enough. Choji stops smiling and frowns, "Hey... Are you not happy Naruto is back? I know you two didn't get along but that's a bit harsh Ino."

I roll my eyes and flip my bangs, "Of course I'm glad. But that idiot hasn't come to greet me yet!"

Choji blinks. After a slight moment of silence, he rubs his tummy, "Well Shikamaru and I are going to dinner with him tonight. It's gonna be teams 7, 8 and 10, we're all gonna catch up with Naruto. I came to invite you, if you wanna come."

I feel my face grow red from anger, "Well if I was wanted at this party, I would have been officially invited. Not given an invitation because I look pathetic and have nothing else to do. I bet he doesn't even want me to be there! I would ruin your whole reunion!"

The air leaves me and even though I have more to bitch about, I can't. Choji blinks at me innocently, "But I said it was teams 7, 8 and 10. You're part of team 10. You know... He did mention you. He asked us where you were, but even if he wanted to come say hi, he was too busy with Tsunade, Kakashi and Sakura."

Well, at least he mentioned me. I get persuaded too easily. I look over at the clock. Six in the afternoon, "Okay I'll come. But I might be a bit late. My shift runs for another hour. Where and when should I come?"

"Come to Hikari's at 9," Choji says. He backs out of the store and waves from outside. I return the wave. When Choji is gone, I feel my cool escape me. Nine? I still have an hour shift! Only two hours to get ready? But I haven't even gone through my closet yet! I have to shower. Should I keep my hair up, or let it down?

Not that Naruto would even notice. Ah! Okay, maybe if I just start planning out the outfit right now, I won't be late. So maybe I should wear a dress? Or is that too formal? Yeah, I should just go casual. Ninja gear is okay. Hair... I'll get back to that.

As I help costumers out in the best way I can, I keep thinking of what I'll dress in. Make-up has to be re-done. I should shave. Even though I'm quite hairless anyway, this is extra important. Accessories? Hmm... No, too fancy. Should I take a purse? No, probably not. It's not an occasion that I'll need one.

"Ino, what are you doing?" I look up to see father raising his eyebrows at me. I look down and see that instead of trimming the thorns off the roses, I've been cutting the whole stem off. I cringe and prepare for a scolding, "What's so important on your mind that you're doing this?"

"Uhm... Well Shikamaru, Choji and I are going out with some friends later tonight. I don't really know what to wear..."

Father laughs, "Of course you don't, you're Ino Yamanaka. So your friends, is one of them Naruto Uzumaki? I heard he's in town again."

"Yeah," I can feel my mood damper. That idiot is back in town and he still hasn't come to visit to say hi. That fact just irks me more and more. I shake my head, dismissing these thoughts and look up at the clock. 6:30. I look back at my expectant father, "Uhm, daddy, do you think, maybe I could..."

"I've heard this one before too many times to count," Father runs a hand through his hair, "But fine, seeing as you're meeting up with the Uzumaki kid and you haven't seen him for two years. I didn't know you two were close though."

I roll my eyes, "We're not dad. But thanks for letting me off my shift! Love you!"

Before my father can go on about Naruto or anything else, I dash out the door. Who cares about the apron still around me, I need to get home and jump in the shower. I completely ignore the people in my way and continue to hurry home. But wait, why am I in such a rush?

My house comes into view. Oh, screw it. I can't deny that I'm excited to see Naruto again. It's been two years, that's a good enough reason to miss the idiot. My stress level goes down now, and I feel a lot more calm. It didn't take me much time at all to get home, but it's still nerve-racking. I've waited too long for this day.

It feels good to run under the shower. Shaving was easy, but of course, it actually took me an hour to take my shower. I always lose track of time. I look into my reflection and take deep breaths. My long hair that I let grow out is cascading down my back and I like it. Maybe I should keep it down.

Dressing is easy, make-up was... significantly easy, but my hair is not drying fast enough. Ugh, but I don't have time to wait for it to dry. I run a brush through it and check the time. I cringe to see 8:50 on the clock. You've got to be kidding me. I run out the door.

If I'm late, I'm gonna kill someone. But Hiraki's isn't too far away, if I sprint I can get there in ten minutes. But sprinting will make me look gross, and a jog is good enough in my books. The wind is actually drying my hair for me. I near the restaurant and slow down to a slow walk, catching my breath. Okay, I made it!

I walk in through the doors and head to the table that I see Choji at. I feel a little light headed from the running and the heat from this small restaurant. But he's there. Naruto is there. He's sitting at the very end, Choji next to him. I grin wide, "Hey guys! I'm-"

I'm cut off when I feel myself wobble and almost crash onto the ground. My legs must have given out. I almost land on Sakura, who is sitting directly across from Naruto. But she stops me by gripping onto my shoulders, and Naruto stands to help out. I feel my throat clog when he takes a hold of my arm and helps me up right.

"You okay, Ino?" Naruto questions.

Damn. His voice. It's lower. Much more manly. Dare I say sexy. Not to mention he said my name. So he does remember me. I stand up straight and pull my arm away from his hands, "Ah, yeah. What's up, Naruto? You didn't come see me yet."

Naruto frowns guiltily. Damn. He's taller. Taller than me. His face lost baby fat. His hands are rough, which is an obvious sign of good training, "Sorry Ino. I was really busy. I was planning on visiting your shop soon though. I wanted to take a look at your roses, see if they're still in good shape."

I nearly laugh. The image of the stemless roses cross my mind, "Yeah, they're in good condition alright..."

Damn. Just everything is so... Damn. If that makes sense.

"Ino, do you want to sit next to me?" Hinata asks. Notice that her stutter is gone. She's seated next to Sakura and Kiba but there's a space between her and Kiba who sits on her other side. I look at Naruto and then back at Hinata. I nod and make my way into the seat.

"So, Naruto! Tell us about your training!" Kiba exclaims, quite loudly.

Naruto takes his seat back. His eyes glance at Sakura and he grins, "Well, I learned a lot of combat skills. I worked on endurance, stamina, chakra maintenance and regular stuff but it was constant training. I learned some new ninjutsu."

Naruto continues to speak about it. But I noticed that Sakura's attention isn't 100%. Hinata's attention is, though. I know I've been waiting two years to know about Naruto's training, but that doesn't mean I'm up to listening to this. So instead, why not make the night more fun?

"How about we order some drinks? You know, for celebration of Naruto's return!" I announce. I look around at the sceptical faces around me and roll my eyes, "Oh come on! You can die any day from a mission and you won't risk a little bottle of sake?"

"You know what? Ino has a point!" Naruto announces. I look at the whisker-faced boy. He's smiling at me, "I wanna celebrate to the full extent! We need to make this more fun!"

Sakura shuts down the thought adamantly, "No way. I don't want any of you acting any worse than you already do. Not to mention how harmful it can be."

"Wow, no fun," Kiba whines. "I say we do it."

"Why the hell not?" I question, causing the rest of the people at the table to agree. I turn to stick my tongue out at the medical ninja. Sakura shakes her head in disapproval. I stick my hand up for the waiter to see, "Excuse me! A couple of bottles of sake over here!"

A waiter comes over holding two different kinds. 15% alcohol or 20%. I look over at Naruto, who looks over at me and shrugs, "Jiraiya-sama always gets super drunk when he drinks 20%. Maybe we should go with 15%?"

"But I wanna get drunk too. We'll have the 20% please," I say to the waiter. Naruto smiles nervously, knowing what the outcome may be. I feel a little guilty going against his choice, "I hope you don't mind too much."

"Can you two end your date and come back to the group reunion?" Shikamaru questions.

I feel my head pound. I flip my hair hotly at my team mate, "Can you actually join the conversation instead of dozing off maybe?"

Shikamaru scoffs and rests his face on his hand that's on the table. Choji laughs nervously, "What's with this mood? I don't like it..."

"The drinks can help that," Kiba says as the waiter returns with five bottles of sake. He takes one and pops it open. He pours the alcohol into his glass and hands the bottle over to me. I take it with a smile and fill my own cup. I hand the bottle to Hinata when I'm finished.

Hinata only pours a slight amount into her cup. She holds out the bottle to Sakura, but the pinkette turns the other cheek. Hinata looks at Naruto, "Naruto-kun, would you like me to pour you a glass?"

"Yeah, sure!" Naruto exclaims, holding out his glass. I watch Hinata stand and bend over to pour him his glass. Hinata's a modest woman but she's definitely filled out over the years. Then again, so have I, and so has Sakura. Naruto pulls his cup back and gives Hinata a friendly smile. He's still completely oblivious, "Thanks Hinata."

A couple drinks later and my mind is completely fuzzy. My words are slurred and I keep fidgeting. But then again, so does Naruto, Choji, and Kiba. Shikamaru, Shino and Hinata look to be a bit buzzed but not to a great extent. Sakura on the other hand is completely sober, and totally a party pooper at the end.

"Okay, I think that's enough," Sakura says. She stands up, "It's 11 and I have a shift in thirty minutes. I'll see you guys around."

"Sakura-chan, don't leave just yet!" Naruto whines with a pout. His words are a bit slurred, making it quite obvious he was quite drunk. He tries to stand up, but has some troubles, "I can walk you if you want me to."

Sakura sighs, "No Naruto. You stay here and enjoy the rest of your night."

Naruto tries to reach out for Sakura but she's already turned around and heading out. I thought maybe Naruto would sit back down but he continues to go after her. I hear him calling out her name in a slurred voice. I look over at Hinata, who has a frown on her face, probably a mirror towards mine.

I stand from my seat as well, although it's probably not as graceful as I thought it would be. The man of the hour was gone, so there isn't a real point to sticking around anyway, "Kiba can pay this time, right Kiba? Anyway, see you guys later."

I wobble my way out of the restaurant. My hair swings back and forth, and I kind of wish I kept it up. It's irritating me. I can hear Kiba complaining and trying to get someone else to pay, but as soon as I leave the restaurant I don't hear any more of his voice.

I turn towards the direction of my house, but stop short when I see Naruto sitting with his back against the wall of the restaurant. His eyelids are shut, but he keeps muttering things.

"Naruto?" I call out, wobbling over to him. I wave a hand in front of his face and try nudging his shoulder but he's completely unconscious. But I can't just leave him here, so I shake him. He still doesn't budge. I decide to lightly slap him, "Naruto! Wake up!"

Naruto only grumbles a little bit and turns his head into a new position, "S-Sakura-chan..."

I roll my eyes. You've got to be kidding me. I look around but it's hard to see when the world is so disoriented. I guess I'll have to take Naruto home. My fists clench hard. Why do I have to do so much for him? Will he recognize it? No.

But he's sitting there so helplessly. With a sigh, I yank Naruto up, which is quite difficult since he's much heavier than I am and I'm just as drunk as Naruto. I place his arm around my shoulders and wrap an arm around his waist for support. I remember back when we were younger that he had a place to himself nearly outside of town.

As I make my way to the opposite direction of where my house is, I curse. Shouldn't the man be the one to do something like this? In any case, it only ticks me off more and more when Naruto calls out every now and then Sakura's name. I scoff and mutter, "Funny how the first time you wrap an arm around my shoulders, you're calling out another woman's name."

Naruto's head jerks towards me. His eyelids flutter open. In a slurred voice, he mumbles, "I-Ino?"

Great. I just woke him up. I feel my head pounding and it hurts really bad. I'm getting impatient, "Naruto, where the hell is your house?"

"Two blocks? I think..." Naruto mutters, his eyelids shutting once more.

Two more blocks my ass. It was five more. Don't ask why that little difference ticks me off. It just does. As I walk up his apartment stairs heaving both his drunken body and my own, I really don't see a point anymore. I nearly slap myself from the stupid idea of doing this when I could have left him for Shikamaru or any other of the guys.

I open the door of his apartment, and it's actually surprisingly clean. Partially due to the fact he probably hasn't spent much time in it ever since he came back. He's been gone for two years. But it's still impressive in my books.

I can taste freedom as I approach Naruto's room. Once inside, I nearly chuck Naruto into the bed. I turn to leave but stop. Am I really just gonna leave him like that? That's the voice of all the good people in the world who wouldn't leave their friend in that uncomfortable position.

I sigh and tuck Naruto in. Even though I really don't have to. I shouldn't care this damn much. But leaving him without making sure he was comfortable seemed so wrong to do.

Once I'm done, I feel a huge weight lifted off my chest. I take a glance at the sleeping Naruto and make my leave. Stupid Naruto. Now I have double the distance to get home and it's already 12. I swear if some creepy ass guy hits on me, Naruto is gonna die.

But for a blonde drunk girl wobbling around, I did a fantastic job getting home. No creepy men, thankfully. Although I did trip a couple times and knock into things. Damn Naruto. Whatever, it's already over and all I want right now is my bed. When I slip in, I feel like I'm in heaven. My eyelids shut and sleep starts to take over.

Naruto... If only he realized how stupid he is. But, I guess, I'm an idiot too.

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 **A/N:** _I hope it was decently okay and you guys are satisfied? Anyway, thanks for reading, it really means a lot! :) And keep reading too! I promise things will get interesting later on. ;)_


	3. Proper Welcome

My punishment for cutting off the roses stems were to have a whole days shift and spend most of my time cutting off the thorns of the roses, properly, this time. Otherwise my pay would be cut to half. Which is understandable but still completely not preferable. Especially when you do it for 4 hours and realize there's still another 4 to go.

I scowl as I continue disembodying the rose of it's precious thorns. I hear the jingle of the door and sigh. In a monotone voice I chant the same greeting I give everyday, "Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Please, find a flower to your liking."

The costumer approaches the counter and leans on it. Annoyance swirls through me as I slam the rose down and look up at the costumer. All the angry words ready to spill out of my mouth seem to disappear as Naruto's grinning face stares at me. For the first time since he's been back, I hadn't been waiting for him, yet today is the day he decides to show up.

"I'd like some roses, if I may," Naruto says, reaching for the one I'm currently working on. He slips it out of my hand and stares at it, "Still in the best condition in all of the town."

"Why? Did you think it's quality would have faltered?" I question with a raised brow. I pull the rose back and continue stripping off the thorns.

Naruto chuckles. He stares at the large piles of roses, on one side are the ones with thorns and the other side the ones I had de-thorned, "Of course not. Why are you stuck doing all of this? It looks tough."

"The other day I kind of zoned out and that happened," I point to the trash can that's filled with stemless roses, "I have to make up for it by spending the whole day cutting off the thorns." A sigh escapes my lips, "Man, my dad was supposed to do half of the portion, but now I'm stuck with all of it."

"Need a helping hand?" Naruto asks, stepping behind the counter. He reaches under the counter and pulls out a gardening knife. He raises it and wiggles his brows and dangles the knife around, "I'm a decent gardener if I do say so myself."

"Do I have a choice?" I ask, watching Naruto reach for a rose. He immediately drops it with a wince. I roll my eyes and reach under the counter and hand Naruto my fathers gardening gloves, "Some great gardener you are, forgetting that roses have thorns."

Naruto laughs his light-hearted laugh. I feel my chest ache. Awe, that laugh. I quickly recover from that momentary sign of weakness. I grab a rose for him and one for me, "Hurry up Naruto, I want to finish these as fast as possible."

"Why? We have all day," Naruto questions but does as he's told.

I just slump down a bit and feel like rolling my eyes but I do that too much and my father says it'll give me wrinkles. I don't believe him but better safe than sorry. So instead I give Naruto my best displeased look, "What do you think? Would you prefer spending your day cutting thorns off roses? Or spending time with your friends?"

"Ah, but we seem to be doing both, Ino-chan," Naruto says with much amusement. I nearly blush but keep myself in control. I ignore him and start cutting thorns off. Stupid Naruto and his stupid words, making me act all stupid.

But he is a good gardener. He cuts off the thorns with ease, almost as easily as me. That sounds like I'm praising myself, but hey, when your family owns a flower shop then you really know a very decent amount of tricks there are to gardening. I continue to think of these tricks, ignoring the sudden self-awareness I feel.

Every now and then our elbows brush. When it gets to be more than just a couple, Naruto laughs. I sigh and tell him to get back to work. I feel Naruto purposely nudge me with his elbow, "You know, we can make this faster by adding a few clones."

"I don't want to waste my chakra doing that jutsu, it takes a lot," I complain, not breaking concentration on my current rose. Naruto only scoffs with a bit of playful pride. I finally raise my eyes to ask why he's acting so high and mighty, when I see eleven Naruto's. I can feel my jaw slightly drop. I quickly lift my jaw back up, "Okay, but how are you going to cut them?"

"Using my nails, I guess," Naruto replies. His clones each take a rose.

I watch in amazement as each clone focuses chakra to their nails before slashing off the annoying pricks. I look at the original Naruto with the gardening gloves and knife. I scrunch my brows together. Is this really the Naruto that left us?

"Naruto..." I say, speechless at the sight of the ten whisker faced males with full concentration as they work their way through the roses. I stare at the original, who's only grinning proudly, "Okay, Naruto. I'll admit, this is pretty damn impressive. Is this how good you got after your two years training?"

Naruto laughs, "Actually, I can make about a thousand. But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't all fit in here."

"You've got to be kidding," I mutter a bit breathlessly. Wow. Those three years really did something to this boy. I can't put into words how much of a difference there is between the boy I didn't appreciate to the man standing in front of me now.

"So are you going to cut or just stand there looking at me like I grew another head?" Naruto asks.

I shake my head and continue on with my rose. Naruto was right, with the clones and himself, it was literally over ten times faster. I sneak a glance at the original standing next to me, "Sorry I was shocked like that... It's just a little weird to see you after three years and find out what your true powers are capable of."

"Well, it's understandable," Naruto says, his voice now hard and serious, "Anything to get Sasuke back."

I feel myself freeze. After a second I continue. I haven't thought of the Uchiha since a couple months ago when Sakura was telling me it was the raven haired boys birthday. Not that it matters to me at all. What was I supposed to do with that information? It's not like the guy was in the village, throwing himself a birthday party. I totally forgot about him after that.

Naruto also freezes, "I'll bring him back. You can count on me, Ino. I'll bring him back for you."

I choose to ignore the fact that he's talking about bringing back a man I couldn't care less about, and focus on the "for you" part. My slight happiness is crushed when I realize, of course he'd want to bring the Uchiha to me. That way Sakura would be free for him.

My grip on the rose tightens and I nearly cut off the stem of my rose but fight the urge. Naruto notices, "I'm sorry, Ino. I know it's hard for you to hear about him. It won't be soon, trust me."

Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Just stop. I want to say all of this. I don't want to hear about Sasuke. I don't want to talk about this. If this is all Naruto wants or has to speak to me abut then I would prefer him gone. He must get the hint, "I'll shut up now."

I nod my head in appreciation. We continue de-thorning the roses in silence. Except, this feels so wrong. Naruto thinks he's touched a sore spot by mentioning the traitor Uchiha. Why can't I bring myself to tell him that it's not the Uchiha that's upsetting me? It's the fact that Naruto still thinks I like Sasuke.

The jingle of the door catches my attention. Both Naruto (and his ten clones) and I look up to see Sakura standing at the doorway, looking slightly confused, "Oh, I didn't know you were here, Naruto. What are you two doing?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaims, all eleven of them at the same time. I'm fed up with the clones already. Naruto moves out from behind the counter, "I was just helping out Ino with her roses. What are you doing here?"

Sakura pushes past the Naruto's and approaches me, "I heard you have some stemless roses?"

I nearly laugh, "Yes. Why?"

"I need them for a certain medicine. Don't ask. I barely know what it's for either. It's just supposed to cure some rash on a very private area," Sakura winks. Not needing to hear anymore, I go retrieve the trash can filled with stemless roses and hand it over to the medic-nin. The pinkette smiles, "Thanks Ino."

Sakura turns and walks out without another word, leaving all the Naruto's to stare after her, and me staring at Naruto. When I finally get bored of watching Naruto's sad face, I return to the roses which were nearly completed. Naruto (the original) comes back behind the counter.

"Funny how she needs roses when you're not offering them," I say. I can't help it, I feel bitter.

Naruto scoffs, "Yeah... The pile looks decently low, would you mind if I go? I need to talk to Tsunade."

"About?" I ask, feeling like slapping myself. It's none of my business and I sound like a mother.

"Now that I'm back, I want to go on a mission! I have to set things up with her before I can go anywhere," Naruto says. His clones begin disappearing one by one. He begins slipping off his gardening gloves, "So would you mind?"

"Once again, do I really have a choice?" I ask with a raised brow. I watch as Naruto waves and exits the shop. For a minute I zone out, biting my lip and staring at the two roses left to de-thorn. How the hell does Naruto always get on my nerves but at the same time make me forgive him of any bad deed he's done?

* * *

8 hour shifts are the worst things in the world. I'm just glad it's finally over. Even though I finished the roses, thanks to Naruto, I still had another 3 hours of work. Mainly just sitting around thinking of nothing as costumers came and went. Now I'm finally locking up and heading home for a nice shower and dinner.

Not even five steps away from the shop and I'm already interrupted, "Ino!"

"What?!" I yell in an annoyed voice. I turn to find Sakura running to catch up to me. Her face looks very solemn. What's the matter now? "What is it, Sakura?"

"Naruto went to get a mission from Tsunade. She wants it to be a group mission of Naruto and I, but I don't think I can or want to go," Sakura explains, now standing in front of me. She looks down and kicks a rock, "Tomorrow is a really... Sad day. It was the day of the Uchiha massacre."

I clench my fists and turn around, taking steps away from my friend who's still hopelessly in love. I call out to her, "Sasuke is an idiot who doesn't deserve you, Sakura."

Sakura grips my wrist and spins me around, "Please go on the mission in my place! I don't want to be alone with Naruto. I just can't think of the team or Sasuke right now."

"Why me? Why not Hinata? I don't want to be alone with the idiot either," I say, pulling my arm out of Sakura's grasp. She doesn't realize her strength. I rub my wrist and wince. Had we been fighting, she could have broken it easily.

"Because I don't have anyone else to rely on. I would ask Hinata because I know she likes him, but she's on a mission with her team," Sakura sighs. "They won't be back for another week and Naruto wants to go tomorrow."

I laugh, "Seriously? You want me to just randomly show up instead of you? He's gonna be so disappointed!"

Sakura groans, "Man I really don't like him in that way, dammit."

I stop laughing, "Fine I'll go. But you better not shed a single damn tear for the asswipe who betrayed this village."

"I won't," Sakura says, but her voice doesn't sound all too convincing. She gives me a small smile and turns to leave, "Meet Naruto at the gate at nine tomorrow morning. He'll most likely be there on time. And tell him... I'm sorry."

I watch the pinkette walk away. I can't stand the bastard who caused her so much heartbreak. I mean't what I said when Sasuke didn't deserve her. No matter what I say or do she's always so depressed. She probably thinks I still like Sasuke too, that's why she won't open up to me... sigh.

Oh well. Tomorrow I'm off to a mission with Naruto. I can't decide whether this is good or bad.

* * *

"Dad..." I groan, my face in my hand. I can't believe the embarrassment I feel. Immediately after I told my parents of my solo mission with Naruto, he decides he needs to walk me over and have a 'talk' with the whisker-faced boy.

"What? This boy needs to know who he's going on a mission with," Father defends. He points to himself with his thumb, "and that's my daughter."

I roll my eyes, hoping for the best as we approach the gates. I can see him waiting there, not a minute too late. I smile a little and run to the idiot, "Naruto!"

"Ino-chan?" Naruto questions, looking confused. He stares past me at my father, who's most likely sending him death glares, "Inoichi-san? What are you two doing here? Are you guys going on a mission as well?"

Poor kid. I sigh and in my head can hear my fellow team mate mutter troublesome. I agree, Shikamaru, I really agree.

"Listen here, Naruto," Father says, towering over the boy. "You behave yourself on this mission with my daughter. If I hear you even thought of laying a finger on her, _you are dead_. Am I clear on that?"

"Dad," Oh, here's the embarrassment again.

Naruto turns to stare at me, "We're going on a mission together?"

I nod, "Yeah, Sakura said she had some... issues... to take care of today. Why? Is that a problem?"

For a split second I can see the slight disappointment, before it's washed away from the fear he must feel with my father towering over him, "No! It'll be fine! We'll have a lot of fun!"

"No you will not!" Father says matter-of-factly in a warning tone.

"Scratch that! No fun!" Naruto quickly says, "All business! ... Can we go now?"

Father backs off with a wide, genuine grin, "Welcome back Naruto!"

Naruto nearly faints from the change in attitude. I laugh and pull the whisker faced boy behind me. I wave to father, "Bye dad! See you in a couple days!"

And we're off on our first mission.


	4. You Have Me

Walking with Naruto is awkward to me. He seems comfortable though, lacing his hands behind his head. It's silent for a good while, although I have so much I want to ask and so much I want to say. If only I knew how I could actually start the conversation. How am I even supposed to speak to the guy?

"You know," Naruto says suddenly, surprising me. I angle my head towards him, encouraging him to continue, "I never got to ask you what you've been up to these two years I've been gone."

A scoff escapes my lips, "What are you talking about? I should be the one asking you."

"Ladies first," Naruto says. Did he learn manners, or did Jiraiya teach him how to win over ladies?

"Then you better start," I retort.

Naruto raises a brow before scoffing, "It's not as interesting as people think. Just the same old repetitive training. There really wasn't anything special to it at all."

"Are you sure nothing special happened?" I ask teasingly, although my heart skips a beat as I hold my breath while saying my next words, "No special ladies you ran into down the road, or women you picked up?"

A clear frown forms on Naruto's face, "Of course not, what would Sakura think?"

His frown is now mirrored on my face. What would _Sakura_ think? Well, Naruto, hate to break it to you but she wouldn't think twice about it. Jerk.

"However, _you_ probably ran into some lucky guys," Naruto counters with a playful smile. "I'm sure you had all of the eligible bachelors lined up at your doorstep."

"Oh, but _of course_ not; for what would my _dear_ Sasuke think of me?" I ask sarcastically.

Naruto laughs a genuine laugh. I get lost in it. It's no longer an annoying sound that leaves a ring in the ears but a smooth tone that resonates, and leaves an imprint in the mind. His eyes turned into half moons and the corners of his eyes creased to show genuine happiness. Did I make him do that? Really? Could I make him do it again?

"What is it?" Naruto asks when he's done laughing and catches me staring. Noticing that my staring is unintentional, he teases, "It's not nice to stare, Ino."

My cheeks flame up and I turn away, "I wasn't staring, I just happened to be wondering why you were laughing so much."

"You're funny, that's why," Naruto's simple reply makes me smile, although I'd never let him see it.

The awkwardness is gone and instead we're left in a comforting silence. I can tell there's a lot on Naruto's mind. Sneaking glances at him, I can see through his mask. It's evident he feels a lot of pressure and has gone through a lot of hardships. As much as I wish I could help relieve him of the stress, what can I do? Even if he's standing right next to me, it always feels as though he's a million miles away. I'm going to make it my goal to shorten that distance.

"You know," I start the conversation the same way Naruto did previously, "you never told me what the mission was even about."

Naruto sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "Well, I mean, it's a mission requiring us to find some sort of hidden treasure the owner believes was stolen. It's such an easy mission. Tsunade says she can't give me the higher ranked ones until I have earned it."

"You've really missed a lot in those two years of absence," I comment. I feel an urge to keep the conversation going, "So what's been on your mind lately? Other than Sakura, of course."

"I don't know, it's quite a mess up there," Naruto points to his forehead. "All I want is to bring Sasuke back, and all I can think about is how I will do it. I don't really think of much else." I nod my head in understanding. Naruto grins and turns to me, "What about you? I want to know everything you've been up to these past two years. I have lots of catching up to do and this is the perfect opportunity to do so."

Heat rises at my cheeks. He wants to know what I've been doing. I know I'm his friend but it amazes me how much he cares for all of us. I clear my throat, "Well, it's been pretty boring without you, not gonna lie. I just work at the shop, go out on missions or meet up with friends. Pretty boring, really."

"Well what did you want to do in those two years? Was there anything you were looking forward to?"

Your return.

"Nope, I just did the same thing every day."

Naruto looks at me with concern. In a soft voice I never knew he had, he says, "Sounds pretty lonely, Ino..."

I'm surprised to find that it really was lonely. No one knew how I felt, and no one asked. I turn my head to the side as I blink away tears, "Yeah, pretty lame, don't you think?"

Naruto doesn't respond to my question. I feel his arm wrap around my shoulders as he declares, "Well now you have me!"

"Naruto—get off of me!" I protest, trying to pull free. He doesn't budge at any of my attempts of escaping his hold. After a few minutes I give in and allow him to rest his arm around my shoulders as we continue making our way.

I turn my head to look at Naruto. He looks straight ahead with a perplexed expression. It seems as though that's his regular state now. I elbow him gently in the ribs and ask, "You must have been pretty lonely too, huh?"

Naruto clenches his jaw before hiding his emotions away with a grin. He doesn't respond to the question and I know it's better to just leave it alone.

"We're here!" Naruto announces as we walk through the town barrier. I hadn't even noticed how close we were to the town.

The town, Shukuba, was lively even as the sun went down and the streetlights turned on as many citizens walked from restaurant to restaurant, enjoyed the attractions, and laughed with one another in peace. Many of them carried shopping bags and had expensive clothing. One building in particular seemed popular as many people went in and out. Intrigued, I cut Naruto off to head towards the building.

"What's this building? It seems like it's really popu—" I don't finish my sentence as I feel Naruto forcefully pull me back by grabbing my elbow. "Hey! What gives?"

Naruto continues to walk, dragging me behind him. He explains, "That was a brothel you were about to enter, Ino."

"Oh," is all I can respond as I feel the embarrassment settle in. I brush it away and change the focus of attention, "How do you know so much about this town?"

"Jiraiya and I came here when we searching for Tsunade. I kinda have some bad memories here, so let's finish the mission as soon as possible," Naruto releases his grip on my elbow and moves his arm back around my shoulders.

"Will you quit doing that?" I ask in annoyance.

Naruto grins, "Nope."

"So should we find an inn to stay at?"

"Yeah, I'm beat," to emphasize his point, Naruto yawns.

It doesn't take long for us to find a low-key inn. It was nearly hidden between the restaurant and the hotel that neighboured it. Naruto approaches the front desk and I follow. The receptionist looks up and smiles at Naruto, "Hello sir, what can I do for you?"

Was it just me or was that a flirtatious tone in her skimpy voice? Naruto doesn't seem to notice as he responds, "We'd like two rooms, please."

"Why two? Wouldn't it save money if we got one?" I ask.

"There's only one bed per room, and I wouldn't want to make you feel uncomfortable," Naruto responds. He turns to the receptionist and confirms the two rooms before receiving the keys.

"If you need anything, _call me_ ," the receptionist says to Naruto as she waves. I feel like regurgitating.

As we walk down the hall to our rooms, I ask, "Do you always get that kind of reaction?"

Naruto looks at me in amusement, "No need to get jealous, Ino."

"I'm not jealous!" I proclaim. I snatch one of the keys from his hand and walk ahead, muttering to myself, "It was only a question."

I quickly enter my room and shut the door behind me. I finally have time to breathe. When my heart stops racing, I take a look around the small room. The bed is fit for only one person, and knowing Naruto, he probably sleeps in his underwear. With a sigh, I reach into my bag for a change of clothes. How am I going to survive this mission?

* * *

The next morning I feel a lot better than the other day. Something within me is filled with this driving force; a determination to succeed this mission swirled inside of me. In a flash, I've already brushed my teeth and taken my shower. I pull on my clothes and gather my belongings, rushing to get out.

I knock on Naruto's door. When he doesn't answer, I begin pounding on it. A low groan is his only response. I shout in anger, "Naruto! Hurry up and get up! We need to go, come on! Don't you want to finish to go home to see Sakura? Get u-"

The door swings open to reveal a nearly naked Naruto. Just as I had thought, he sleeps in his underwear. My eyes betray me as they linger on his body. I have to say, Naruto is a nice sight to see. Even his hair looks attractive in all of its messiness. Thankfully, Naruto is too out of it to notice my staring. He yawns and moves out of the doorway, allowing me entrance.

"I'm gonna shower," Naruto mumbles before yawning again. His eyes are still shut as he heads to the bathroom. He shuts the door behind him and leaves me alone.

Having nothing else to do, I make his bed. It's not all that messy, but I take my time. I'm actually glad he got us separate rooms. Sleeping in the same room wouldn't have made me as uncomfortable as it would have had me distracted.

The bathroom door opens and Naruto walks in fully clothed. Swinging his bag over his shoulder he asks, "Ready to go?"

"You're done already?" I question. He couldn't have been in there for more than 10 minutes.

"Yeah?" Naruto responds as though I'm crazy.

I slightly glare at him before grabbing my own bag. As we exit I stop him to ask, "You have your key?"

Naruto dangles the key in front of him with a cheeky grin. We walk two steps towards the lobby and already his stomach growls. Naruto laughs nervously while placing a hand to the back of his head, "Whoops, sorry."

My own stomach decides to respond to his by giving it's own growl. I curse and hold my empty stomach, "I haven't eaten a proper meal since the day before yesterday. Where are we going for breakfast?"

"Well there's that restaurant right next door," Naruto observes, "We could try that place?"

"I don't really care, as long as they serve food," I say, hoping Naruto didn't hear my stomach grumble for the second time.

"Well what else would they serve?" Naruto teases.

I ignore him and watch him drop the keys off on the front desk. He pays the receptionist and we make our way out. Of course the receptionist urges him to stay longer or to stay a night in the "special" suite, provided for only the most important people in the continent. I roll my eyes at her and feel triumphant when Naruto declines and instead puts his arm around my shoulders before leading me out.

I allow Naruto to keep his arm around me up until we enter the restaurant. A waiter welcomes us and directs us to a booth by the window. We take our seats across from one another and he disappears. Naruto picks up a menu, ignoring my hard stare. He finally flicks his eyes off the menu to return my gaze, "What is it?"

"What's with the whole arm around my shoulders thing, huh?" I question.

"Well hugs can psychologically make someone happy, and since I can't always be hugging you, I might as well give you half a hug," Naruto explains. "You should return it sometime."

I scoff, "When have you ever given me a hug?"

"Do you want one right now?"

"No!"

"Hi, are you ready for me to take your order?" The waiter from before asks. I look up to find him smiling at me in an all too familiar flirtatious way. I turn to Naruto, who once again doesn't seem to notice. Or care.

"Yeah, I'll have two orders of beef ramen," Naruto orders casually. "Don't make it two spicy."

The waiter blinks, "Ramen? For breakfast?"

Naruto raises a brow, "Is that a problem?"

Without responding the waiter turns to me, "And for you, beautiful?"

I ignore his comment and order, "A salad with no dressing. Thanks."

He writes down the order and enters the kitchen. Naruto scoffs and I can't help but think his pout is cute. He looks at me and snarls, "Can you believe that guy? Ramen is a delicacy!"

"Honestly Naruto, you love ramen enough to name your child after it," I say. It's my way of telling him he's hopeless.

When the food comes out, I watch Naruto nearly drink all of his ramen in one go. I've barely touched my salad when he'd moved on to his second bowl. He barely seems to notice I'm there as he eats. When he's finished he leans back and stares at me. I hear his stomach grumble again and he does that same thing he did last time, laugh nervously while rubbing the back of his head, "Sorry, I guess I'm still hungry."

I shake my head at him and pass my salad over. He gives it an uncertain stare before taking two bites to finish the plate, although it was only half way done when I was through with it. Naruto calls the waiter over to order two more bowls of ramen.

"Naruto! What are you doing!" I scold. "Do you really need to eat that much?"

"Hey, I'm only going to eat one bowl," Naruto defends. "You're eating the other one."

"Me?" I look at him in confusion.

He grins, "Yeah, you said you haven't had a proper meal since the day before yesterday, so I want to treat you. There's no way a plate of leaves counts as a proper meal."

"Oh, but a bowl of ramen does?"

"Of course!"

I roll my eyes as the waiter places the bowls on our table. I take one and stare at the stew. Well, it wouldn't hurt to try. I use my chopsticks to pull out some noodles. It's impossible to not slurp the noodles. I feel embarrassed at first but hearing Naruto bravely slurp up his noodles, I do the same. I'm pleasantly surprised at the taste and moan in approval.

"What did I say?" Naruto asks triumphantly. He continues to dig in and I follow his lead. When I've eaten all of my noodles and beef I lean back in my chair, too stuffed to continue. Naruto peers into my bowl and frowns, "You have to drink the soup."

"Are you giving me orders?" I ask. He's trudging in dangerous territory right now.

Naruto continues to frown, "You won't get the full experience if you don't drink it."

"Naruto, I can't. I can barely even walk," I push the bowl to him and look at him to find him glaring at me. "What? Oh, come on! You can't be serious?"

"Don't dishonour the ramen."

I sigh and raise the bowl to my lips. Taking slow sips, I drink the remainder of the soup. I probably would have enjoyed it if not for the ache in my stomach begging me to stop. When I'm done I slam the bowl down and glare at the now smiling Naruto, "Happy?"

"Very," Naruto replies triumphantly.

He rises from his seat and waits for me to do the same. It takes me a while but I manage to pull myself up. Naruto leads the way out once more. He pays the cheque before we exit the restaurant. I groan as I rub my aching stomach, "I feel like I have a food baby."

"Well give birth or something, we have a mission to get to," Naruto instructs. Is he kidding? Knowing Naruto, there's a high chance he isn't.

"Where are we supposed to go, anyway?" I ask, looking left and right at all the different buildings. Citizens seem to wander the streets visiting the shops whether it's day or night, there just isn't a stop.

"We're supposed to meet at a resort on the outskirts of town, and I highly doubt there's more than one of those here."

"Wait, if we were supposed to meet the client at the resort, why didn't we go there to begin with?"

Naruto grins with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Because I want to show you Fun Fun Avenue!"

"You want to show me, or you want to have fun yourself?" I question. He doesn't answer me, instead he grabs my wrist and pulls me along faster.

We're nearly jogging down the streets to reach Fun Fun Avenue. This street put the others to shame, it just seemed so... fun! My focus shifts back to our mission. I pull my wrist away from Naruto's grasp and instead clutch his. I tug on his wrist while saying, "Naruto, come on. Like you said, we have a mission to get to."

"Oh, come on Ino! One game, please?" Naruto begs childishly.

Although I know one game will turn into two, and then into three, and so on, I can't bring myself to say no to him. So I give in, "Fine, but only for a few minutes."

Naruto drags me behind as he enters arcades and casinos, anything the street has to offer. I watch him play every game, cheering with him when he wins and comforting him when he loses. The old Naruto I've always known returns every time he begins a new game. It's refreshing to see, and neither of us are in a rush to stop. In fact, I hope it doesn't have to stop.

"Hey, are you hungry?" Naruto asks as we pass food carts.

I suddenly realize we've been here for more than five hours. I tap Naruto's shoulder, "Naruto, we need to go. _Now._ "

"Hold your horses," Naruto says, buying a dozen fishsticks. He offers me one. Even though I resist the urge to take it, my empty stomach doesn't allow me to fight it. I pout and take one from him while he smiles and places his empty arm around my shoulders, "We can go now."

I feel relieved hearing that, so I steal another fishstick. He doesn't protest, and I allow him to keep his arm around me while we walk away from Fun Fun Avenue. Naruto has already downed nine fishsticks by the time I'm done my second and hands me the last one. I accept it but can't help pointing out my observation, "You eat so fast."

"Well maybe you just eat slow," He retorts.

"Not everything is a competition," I huff, taking a bite of my fishstick.

After a while we make it to the outskirts of town. It isn't hard to find the huge resort, especially with all the signs leading us to it. We enter the lobby and the receptionist greets us with a grin.

"Hello! Thank you for choosing our services today! Do you have a reservation?" she asks while looking through the reservations list.

"Sorry, no, we're the shinobi here to investigate a hidden treasure?" I explain.

Her grin quickly disappears and she slaps her head in her hands, "Well thanks for nothing. You're too late, the 'treasure' my father was so worried about ended up being lost in the pool. We found it this morning, so you can either check in or head back to your village."

I glare at Naruto. If it wasn't for us stopping by Fun Fun Avenue, we could have had a successful mission. I sigh, "Sorry for the inconvenience, we'll be go—"

"We'll take the honeymoon suite," Naruto interrupts.

"What?!" I exclaim, my jaw dropping.

The receptionist hands over a key to Naruto, "Enjoy your stay."

Naruto smiles at me and I feel the urge to slap him. My hand seems to agree, except it settles for a smack on his arm. I shake my head at his stupidity, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Why not enjoy our stay a little longer?" Naruto asks, heading towards the stairs leading to the top floor where our room is. I dread the long way up, even though I know it will be easy using a bit of chakra. Still, I'm mad at this whisker faced idiot. He seems to sense it, because he nudges my shoulder on our way up the stairs, "Oh, come on! There's a pool, restaurant, shopping area, and sports area. We'll have a ton of fun!"

"Why the honeymoon suite?!" I exclaim, feeling my face fume from both anger and embarrassment. "And what do you mean by fun? My father specifically said not to have any!"

A shiver runs down Naruto's spine as he remembers the encounter with my dad. I feel victorious only for a second before he says, "No fun? But you had fun this morning, didn't you?"

I turn my cheek the other way, "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Either way, my dad won't be happy you went against his word."

Naruto chuckles, "You did too, so we're in the same boat. Might as well keep going with it."

"You never answered why you chose the honeymoon suite," I add.

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto answers, looking perplexed. I feel my face heat up and many thoughts go through my head. What is Naruto _thinking_?! Before I can voice my concerns, Naruto continues, "I obviously chose it because it has the best view and we get the best deal for it."

"But Naruto, there's only _one bed_ ," I point out. "I thought you didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable?"

"There's one _huge_ bed," Naruto counters. "I'll stay on my side, and you stay on yours. You already saw me in my underwear, I don't think we need to be shy anymore."

I smack his arm again and move ahead of him. He's so difficult. Why do we always have to argue like an old married couple? I'm so not okay with this situation, no matter how much I've wanted to spend time with him, this is not how I imagined it. Okay maybe a little. Ugh, what am I even thinking?

Upon reaching the top floor, I wait for Naruto to join me. He slides the key into the lock and we head inside. The room is big enough for a family of 5! There's a large kitchen upon entering, an even larger living area, with an outdoor patio, a jacuzzi bathtub, and a larger than life bed. I suddenly approve of Naruto's choice as I throw my bag onto the bed.

"Wanna go explore this place?" Naruto asks.

"Explore this place? This room is big enough to keep us entertained for days!" I exclaim before I freeze to clarify, "I mean that in the most platonic way possible."

Naruto plops onto the bed and moans, "I could definitely spend a week just sleeping in this bed."

"You do that, I'll spend the week in the jacuzzi!" I twirl around the large bathroom that was probably as big as my room itself. Not wasting any time, I search for my swim suit, "Naruto! Let's go to the pool! Then we can go eat, then shop, then return and I can _jacuzzi_! Naruto!"

Naruto groans, reluctantly lifting himself off the bed, "Okay, okay."

Sleeping arrangements out of my head, I change into my swimsuit. Although I didn't plan on staying at a resort—let alone the honeymoon suite—a shinobi knows to come prepared for any type of situation, an underwater battle being one. It's happened before, and I've been prepared, unlike Shikamaru.

The excitement in me continues to grow as I wrap a towel around myself and take another for Naruto. I exit the washroom to see Naruto changed and back to laying on the bed. I cross my arms in front of me and call out, "Naruto, get up!"

Naruto groans and rolls until he's fallen off the bed. I throw the towel at him and he stands, flinging the towel back.

"Hey! This is for you at the pool," I protest, throwing it back. Naruto swings the towel over his shoulder and follows me to the doors. I can't contain my excitement as we head down. With a bounce in my steps, I enter the pool area and find it to be pretty vacant, "Yes, this is good! This means there isn't a line up for the slides!"

"Don't you want to keep your hair dry?" Naruto asks sarcastically. He gives my ponytail a slight, harmless tug.

"Screw that," I respond, making my way to the large slide. I climb the ladder and prepare to head down. Before I can finish properly sitting, Naruto has already pushed me. I scream as I slide unexpectedly. I fall into the water ungracefully and all I can hear is Naruto's laugh at the top of the slide. I shout out, "Naruto! You're dead!"

Naruto comes down the slide with ease, plopping next to me in the water. I give him a huge splash, which he returns. We continue until I feel my stomach ache from laughing too hard. I hold my hands up in defeat and head to the edge of the pool. Pulling myself up, I sit with my legs dangling in the water. Naruto joins me and we sit there in a comfortable silence.

"How long have you two been married?" A voice calls out behind us. I turn around to see a couple that look a few years older than us ask us the question.

"Oh, we're not-"

"About a month," Naruto cuts me off again. I stare at him as the couple wishes us a happy future. "Thank you, we really appreciate it. My wife here is with child, and we could really use the support."

"She's already with child?!" The man of the couple asks in astonishment.

My eyes grow huge as my anger increases. I place a warning hand on Naruto's shoulder and say with menace, "Ho _ney,_ we said we weren't going to _tell_ anyone yet."

"It's harmless to tell one person."

"There's two of them."

"Well there's three of _us_."

I send Naruto daggers as the couple laugh at our bickering, "You two have the passion of new lovers but the comfort of an old married couple. All the best with the marriage and baby!"

The couple wave goodbye and I begin my attack on Naruto. He doesn't dodge the punches and kicks I throw at him. When I run out of energy I sit back and continue to glare, "You idiot!"

"How many times have you called me that today?" Naruto questions. I throw another fist at his arm. "Okay, okay! To be fair, people will question why we are here together if we tell them we aren't married. So I did this to save us the trouble."

"And what good did me 'being with child' benefit us, exactly?"

"Oh, that one was for fun."

I punch his arm again and rise from the spot. I grab my towel and wrap myself in it. Grabbing the key to our room, I head for the stairs. Naruto calls after me, "Where are you going?"

"The jacuzzi," I reply plainly.

I make my way up the stairs and to our shared room. Naruto trails behind me, so I quickly enter the bathroom and shut the door behind me before he can follow. After locking the door, I turn the water on in the bathtub. I drop the towel and pull out my ponytail to let my damp hair loose.

My hair cascades down to my waist and I feel slightly chilly standing there. I place my hand in the water to test it before turning off the tap and entering. Immediately I feel relaxed and my mood brighten. I turn on the jets and allow the water to soothe my body. This is the life.

A tap on the door brings me back to reality and out of my blissful state. After a second the tapping continues and grows irritating. "I'm coming! Gosh."

I rise from the jacuzzi and immediately regret it. I quickly unlock the door before jumping back into the delightful water. The door opens to reveal Naruto, holding a tray of sweets, a glass of wine and two wine glasses. My jaw drops, "What's that?"

"Some complimentary sweets, along with complimentary wine," Naruto places the tray on the edge of the jacuzzi—I steal one—before joining me in it.

"Hey! I never said you could join me," I protest.

"I never said you could have some of the sweets," Naruto counters.

I sigh, making room for him. He opens the glass of wine and pours us some. Handing me one of the glasses, Naruto raises his glass in a toast, "Here's to our long lasting friendship!"

"And our unborn child!" I add, clinking my glass with his.

We take a drink of the wine and eat the sweets. We eat until the tray is empty and we drink until the bottle of wine is done. However, neither of us are drunk. It just makes everything funnier. Like the color of the walls, or the way Naruto's whiskers moved on his face when he changed facial expressions. When the water begins to feel cool, we decide it is time to step out.

Drying myself off, I shoo Naruto out of the room so I can change. He doesn't protest, and closes the door behind him. I change quickly so as not to feel cold. When I've changed into a comfy pair of pajamas I join Naruto in the bedroom. He's already stripped to his boxers and claimed the left side of the bed. I crawl under the covers on the right side and am surprised to find that it really is comfy enough to sleep for a week in.

I turn on my side to face Naruto. He's lying on his stomach, face towards me. Inching closer to him, I place a hand on his sleeping head and run my fingers through his hair. It's as soft as what I've always imagined a cloud to be. I ask his sleeping figure in a soft voice, "When you said that I have you now, were you being serious?"

"Yes," Naruto responds, surprising me. I pull my hand back in embarrassment, but he protests. I place my hand back on his head and once again run it through his soft hair. He smiles and grunts in approval.

"Goodnight, Naruto," I whisper before drifting off to sleep. I faintly hear him repeat my words before I'm taken into the dream world.

* * *

 **A/N:** _So as you can tell, a lot of this story is AU. But I try to keep the character in character but I'm sorry if this is too OOC for you!_

 _I received a review asking for a +5k word chapter, so here you go! Phew, took a lot of time and effort (and overcoming writers block) but it's worth it! Right?_

 _Review please please please! I worked really hard and I want to know where you guys want the story to head! Give me your input!_


	5. Be Honest With Yourself

The next morning I wake up to an empty bed. Wondering where Naruto is, I rise form the bed and head out to the living area. The smell of food fills my nose and I perk up. I'm pleasantly surprised to find Naruto hard at work, fixing the shapes of riceballs. Noticing me, Naruto grins, "Good morning, Ino-chan!"

I smile and lift my hand in greeting before turning around and heading to the bathroom. I take out some clothes from my bag and change before brushing my teeth. When I'm done I brush my hair before putting it up in it's usual ponytail. Feeling satisfied, I exit the bathroom and head back to the kitchen.

"What's all of this?" I ask, seeing Naruto frying a fish.

"They had some food in the fridge so I decided to cook it for us. You don't mind, do you?" Naruto asks, not breaking his concentration as he moves back to his riceballs.

"Not at all," I take the flipping spatula and flip the fish over. I glance over my shoulder to see Naruto smile at me. I mirror the expression before returning to the fish.

We silently prepare breakfast together. Naruto pulls out the plates and I dish out the food equally between them. He takes the plates and glasses of water to the dining table while I place the dirty dishes in the sink. I join him at the table by sitting across from where he sits. Somehow it doesn't feel awkward at all in our silence. I guess feeling his presence is comforting enough.

"Hey, Naruto," I break the silence, "were you planning on doing all of this with Sakura?"

Naruto tenses at the mention of the pinkette, but quickly smiles, "I didn't plan on going to Fun Fun Avenue or to fail the mission, so no, none of this was planned if it had been Sakura-chan."

I smile knowing Naruto planned to take me to Fun Fun Avenue on our way to town, and hadn't planned to do it had it been Sakura who he was on this mission with. Taking a bite of the fish I admit, "Even though we 'failed' what was required for us to do on this mission, I feel like we succeeded anyway."

"It's because you had fun," Naruto smiles triumphantly.

"Did I?" I tease, sipping my water.

"We should get ready to go. Your dad will start wondering what's taking so long," Naruto says nervously, once again shivering at the thought of my father.

Part of me really doesn't want to go. I really wish we could stay here a while longer, but I can't let him know that. I nod my head and take my empty dish to the sink, "We can leave once we're done washing the dishes."

"It's really not necessary," Naruto complains, bringing his own dishes to the sink.

The proximity between us is enough to make me catch my breath. I step back and give in, "You're right. We should head out as soon as possible."

We pack as quickly as Naruto can eat, and leave the suite in the same speed. As we check out, I can't help feeling sorry for making Naruto pay for everything. He seems to notice as well because when he's done paying the receptionist, he approaches me with the question, "How come I had to pay for everything?"

"Well, technically I wasn't supposed to be here anyway," I answer with a flip of my hair. "Besides, it's not like I asked you to take me to Fun Fun Avenue or to stay here an extra night."

Naruto sighs, "Well then you'll just have to pay next time."

He's already out the front doors before I get a chance to respond to that. A next time? Will there be a next time?! The thought makes me smile, but I quickly wipe the smile off my face and catch up to him. As we make our way back, I can't help looking back at Shukuba Town. That was the most fun I'd had in a while.

"Hey, Ino," Naruto tugs at my arm. I realize I had stopped for a second too long, and I fall back into pace with him. I feel Naruto casually drape his arm over my shoulders, causing me to roll my eyes. He seems deep in thought again. "Can you tell me about how everyone has been doing these past few months?"

"Everyone—or a certain someone?" I question with a raised brow.

Naruto snorts, "To be honest I want to know how Sakura and Hinata have been doing in my absence. Sakura and I haven't gotten a chance to really talk yet, and Hinata hasn't approached me yet."

"Well," I bite my lip. Does Naruto know about Hinata's feelings? "Sakura has been working hard on improving herself. She really wants to get Sasuke back. Hinata... Well, she had stuff going on within her clan. I don't know much about it, and it's not really my business. I think with you around, it's relieving a lot of stress for her. She really missed you."

"Hmm," Naruto responds. I can tell he's happy at my answer. He drops his arm from around me and interlaces them through his hair like he did on our way to the mission. "It sucks missing so much of my friends lives."

"Naruto, we all understand why you left," I reassure, placing a hand on his shoulder. I look at my hand and so does he. What the hell am I doing? I take my hand off and continue, "It doesn't matter. You're here now." Under my breath I mutter, "Don't you dare leave again."

"I won't," Naruto declares. I'm surprised—and embarrassed—he even heard me. "I'm going to get Sasuke back, be with Sakura, and become hokage."

I feel my stomach drop. These are the three things he dreams of doing. He will never give up on Sasuke, without a doubt he will become hokage someday, but... Will he really never give up on Sakura? I really don't want to fight with her over some boy again, but Naruto isn't just some boy. Only, Sakura won't ever see that.

"You deserve happiness, Naruto," I say suddenly. I can't believe I just spoke my thoughts. It's too late to take it back.

Naruto blinks at me a few times and then grins, "I'm already happy, Ino."

"No, I mean," stop talking Ino you idiot! "you deserve the best. And if I'm going to be honest,"—no, don't!—"Sakura isn't the one for you." Well, there it is.

Naruto laughs. He _laughs_. When he's done, he says, "I won't give up on her."

Well crap. I don't know what this feeling is but I hate it. It's not even a feeling, it's just numbness. Naruto sucks. He sucks for not knowing how long I waited for him, how much I thought about him, the amount of worry I had for him, the prayers I prayed for him, or the two years I spent dedicated to him. He will never know, and quite frankly, he will never care.

The rest of the time I keep quiet. I can't talk to him. The simple questions he asks to make small chat are only responded with a nod or a shake of my head. I can't speak. I felt that this experience turned out to be a success despite the failure at the mission, but now I feel as though the whole thing truly is one big failure.

What does he see in her anyway? She has never given him the time of day, and she's made it clear she's not interested.

I nearly freeze when I come to a new realization. I'm in the same spot as Naruto. Similarly to Sakura, he hasn't given me the time of day and has made it clear where his feelings lie.

I blink away the tears and force myself to keep it together until we reach the village. When we enter the gates, Naruto turns to me, "Well, see you around, Ino! Hopefully we can team up again someday."

I nod without looking at him and quickly take a different route than the way he's headed. Even though it takes me an extra ten minutes to get home, I don't care.

I've been home for only thirty minutes before there's a knock on the door. Being the only one home, I slug my way to the door.

"Ino, how was it?" Sakura questions, pushing her way in.

My eyebrows furrow before I shut my door and follow Sakura into my home, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Naruto?"

"I was with Tsunade when they announced your return. I hurried here because I _don't_ want to be with Naruto," Sakura sighs. "Listen Ino, I think I'm going to tell him that he has absolutely no chance. I want to be his friend but his crush is getting in the way."

"It won't work," my mind replays Naruto's words in my heard. "He won't give up until he knows for sure you can never be together. Simple words won't tell him that."

"Then what else can I do?" Sakura holds her head in her hands.

I really don't want to be talking about this right now. With a sigh I suggest, "How about you make him realize that there are other girls who like him and want to give him their time?"

A light bulb must go off in Sakura's head because she's grinning ear to ear, the wheels in her head turning with ideas. She jumps up and heads to the door, "Thanks Ino!"

"Wait!" I call after her. "What's the plan?!"

Sakura stops at the door and turns to me with a smirk, "I'm gonna get Hinata to confess."

As if today couldn't get worse.

Sakura leaves and I'm left alone. Grabbing my coat, I dash out the door after her, "Wait for me!"

* * *

"No. Absolutely not," Hinata protests. Her arms are crossed over her chest and her eyes are shut as she shakes her head. She continues, "I can't!"

"Please! Hinata, you've liked him since forever!" Sakura argues. "I want you to be happy with him now. He will never be happy with me, and I wouldn't be with him."

Hinata stays quiet but when she opens her eyes she has tears welling up. She speaks softly, "I don't want to get rejected..."

"But if you don't do it now, when will you ever do it?" Sakura presses.

"I'm just not ready right now," Hinata declares.

"Why not?" Sakura is beginning to get irritated.

"Because he doesn't have the same feelings, definitely not at this point in time."

"Well then _make_ him!"

"How do I do that?!"

"He'll develop feelings when he knows you feel that way!"

"What if he doesn't?"

"He _will_!"

" _Shut up!_ " I scream over their incessant arguing. The two turn to me as though they hadn't realized I was there. I roll my eyes, "Sakura, you can't force Hinata into doing this because of your selfishness. You're supposed to encourage her, not pressure her. Hinata, you seriously do need to warm up to the idea of confessing your feelings otherwise you'll regret it terribly."

I really hope they didn't catch my voice cracking at regret. They both look at me stunned. Standing here in this moment after my rant I realize that even though I told Hinata to confess, I will never be able to. My chest tightens but I ignore it.

"Wow, Ino," Sakura says, breaking the silence, "I didn't know you had that in you."

"Well both of you were getting on my nerves," I say, rubbing my aching temples. All of this Naruto talk was causing me a headache. "I'm gonna go."

What the hell is the matter with me? I need to talk to someone about this.

* * *

"So basically, you have a crush on Naruto?!"

"No!"

Shikamaru lifts an eyelid before shutting it once more. His arms are crossed behind his head and he's laying on top of a hill. He was in the exact same position when I first approached him. I sat down and told Shikamaru everything. From when Naruto first left to the events prior in the day.

Shikamaru scoffs, "Face it Ino, you're in love with the whisker faced idiot."

My chest aches again. I groan and hide my face in my hands, "Shikamaru! I can't like him and I don't! I won't accept that statement you just made."

"Hey guys!" Choji exclaims, joining us on the hill. He plops down next to Shikamaru, a hand in his chip bag. "What's up?"

"Well, Ino's in love with Naruto," Shikamaru announces.

"Shikamaru!" I shout in aggravation. I hit his arm, seeing the shocked look on Choji's face. I sigh and explain, "I'm not in love with anyone. I just have confusing things going on inside of me."

"Puberty finally hitting you?" Shikamaru jokes.

I hit him again. Turning to Choji, I confide in him instead, "Even if I did have feelings for Naruto, which I'm not saying I do, there's no way he can ever find out or anyway of us being together. He's madly in love with Sakura, and now Sakura has a plan to have him fall in love with Hinata."

"Okay, wait," Shikamaru orders, sitting up. "You were the one to suggest the idea, and you were the one to encourage her."

"Well what am I supposed to do? They both need help. Sakura wants a way out of Naruto's heart and Hinata wants a way in and that's all they know. I can't just meddle my way into it."

"You kind of did without meaning to, right?" Choji asks. "You two were on that mission together, how was it?"

I groan, feeling my chest ache again at the thought. I mentally tell my heart to just stop working if it's going to be so bad at its job. Turning to Choji I explain, "We completely failed the mission because he wanted to have fun. We did, but now those memories..."

"Became too overwhelming?" Choji finishes. I nod, appreciating his help.

"Your situation is troublesome," Shikamaru states, clearly trying to find a solution. "I want to tell you to just be honest to yourself and everyone else about how you feel, but knowing you that's not what you want to or will do. But listen to me, Ino. You waited two years for this guy. Sometimes it's okay to be a little selfish."

"It's not just a little selfish, though," I look the other way, "Hinata has liked him for a lot longer than I have. It's not fair to her."

"Why don't you let Naruto be the one to decide who he wants to be with?" Choji asks.

"That's not how women work, Choji."

I slap Shikamaru's arm once more, "I'm not going to be the one who hurts Hinata."

"Right, so let Naruto be the one." Choji states simply.

"No!" I feel the aggravation coming back. "Guys, try to think of everyone's situation. Naruto doesn't have romantic feelings towards Hinata or I, at all. No one can force him to like one of us, and quite frankly, I don't want to compete for his attention."

"So move on," Shikamaru instructs.

"What?" I look at him in shock.

"If you don't like him, then let him go. Move on."

The familiar ache is back.

Shikamaru smiles in victory, "See? It's not so easy to do that after liking him for so long. Be honest with yourself Ino, then maybe the pain will end."

I groan and shove my face back into my hands. Choji extends his bag of chips to me. I take one in gratitude. I mumble, "Thanks."

"How about we go get some dinner?" Choji suggests. He stands up and offers me a hand.

"How about some ice cream?" I suggest, really needing some comfort food. I let Choji practically lift me to my feet.

Shikamaru gets up with a groan, "Alright but Ino pays since she just returned."

"Hey, shouldn't you be treating me if I just returned?"

"That's not the way it's always been, Ino."

"Oh so it's always been this way?"

Choji and Shikamaru look at each other and nod. I laugh even though they are teaming up on me. Choji continues the attack, "I hope you have enough money, because I'm really hungry today."

"That talk made me really hungry also," Shikamaru adds.

"I hate you guys," I say endearingly. After that talk, I think I owe it to them to pay for the meal.

* * *

"I can't believe we ate so much," I shake my head at the bill.

"To be fair, Choji and I didn't order the ice cream," Shikamaru defends.

"But you two ate the majority of it!"

"I didn't even eat that much," Choji complains.

I bite my lip to stop myself from pointing out that he ate three lobsters on his own. Instead I pay the bill and we head out of the restaurant. That must have cost a weeks worth of work. If it had been anyone else I would have been angry, but these two are my teammates and best friends, so I let these kinds of things slide.

"I hope you two know you can never, _ever_ tell anyone about that talk we had on the hill. Otherwise, I will end your life," I warn. "Better yet, I will enter your minds and first find out all your secrets you hide from me and then break you from inside out."

"Jokes on you, we don't keep things from you," Shikamaru states smugly. "Unlike you who hid this away from us for _two years_. I'm a bit offended."

"Hey, _I_ didn't even know," I defend.

"We won't say anything Ino," Choji declares. "We promise."

I smile, "I know."

We separate ways. I feel a huge weight lifted off me and smile. I'm so glad I finally got some stuff off my chest. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I'm in a way better mood than I was six hours ago. I'm nearly skipping home as I think back to the conversation.

Shikamaru told me to be honest with myself. I stop skipping. Why can't it be enough for me to just be Naruto's friend? Why do I feel like I want to be something more when the possibility of it is less than zero? Why did I wait so long for him?

Maybe, just maybe, I do like the blonde haired idiot.

Well, I'm screwed.

* * *

 **A/N:** _There was so much filler in this chapter I don't even know._

 _I really hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I know it's only +3k words this time but once again, fillers have to happen *sigh* TT-TT_

 _Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks so much for your support! Also, I encourage any constructive criticism in order to help me grow as a writer! (just don't bash Ino and say how she's less worthy of Naruto than Hinata because although I love Hinata, this is my story and I ship NaruIno_ — _obviously, I mean look at my pen name. xD) Thank you!_


	6. A White and Diamond Rose

"No, dad, we didn't have any fun," I state. "We failed the mission because the ones who requested our assistance already solved the mystery. There wasn't anything fun about not getting paid."

"Then why did it take you so long to come back?" Inoichi questions.

I sigh, "Seriously dad, we got lost on the way back. You know how Naruto is. I was just stupid enough to let him lead the way."

Inoichi narrows his eyes at me suspiciously. I bat my lashes and act innocent. It works every time, and this time isn't an exception. He sighs, "Okay fine. But you're going back to work today, I hope you know that."

"Yeah yeah, I already washed my gardening gloves," I say, waving the said objects in the air.

Inoichi smiles proudly, "Alright then. Hey, kiddo, happy birthday."

"Thanks, dad," I give him a hug before heading out.

Today I get to visit our flower farm outside of town since I get to be the one to organize a wedding bouquet. The thought of fully bloomed flowers perk me up tremendously. Being around the things I love most is very therapeutic for me.

"Ino?"

Oh no. I look over my shoulder to see Naruto jogging towards me. I curse but hide my displeasure with a smile. "Hey Naruto."

"Where are you headed off to?" He questions, looking down at my gardening gloves and basket meant to carry the flowers in.

"My family's flower farm to pick out some flowers for a wedding bouquet," I continue walking, now with him by my side.

"Sounds interesting. Can I come?"

I want to say no, but I can't. I don't want to push him away after getting a speck closer to him. "I guess, but if you ruin any of the flowers, my dad will kill you."

Naruto looks like he's about to back out of it, but chooses not to. "Your dad is a scary man."

"I don't see it," I reply with a shrug.

We exit the gates of the village and I lead the way to the flower farm. It's not far from the village, it's close enough that I could probably visit it everyday if I wanted to. But the flowers aren't always in bloom.

We make our way to the fenced area of land and I unlock the gate, allowing us entrance. Immediately upon entering, Naruto is amazed.

"Wow," he lets out breathlessly, "look at all the colours!"

There are rows and rows of many different flowers, all with different colors and many different scents. I'm pleased by Naruto's reaction. He follows me open mouthed as I walk down the row closest to us. I turn to him with a proud smile, "Want to know what the flowers mean?"

"Sure!" Naruto exclaims, gently running a hand over a red camellia. "What does this one mean?"

"This one," I gently pluck a few from the soil and place in my basket, "means to be in love, or perishing from grace. Either or, but I want to take a bunch of flowers that come with marriage and love. So like over here," I move towards the next set of flowers which are daffodils, "these daffodils mean respect. It's not quite as romantic."

"So which one is the most romantic?" Naruto asks, taking a sniff of the daffodils.

I smile in eagerness and lead Naruto down another row. I point towards the tiny blue flowers and say, "These are Forget-Me-Nots. They represent true love. But they're too small to add to the bouquet."

Naruto nods as he takes in the information. "Okay, so if that's the case, what do roses mean?"

I laugh, "You mean the roses you always give to Sakura? Well red roses does mean love or to be in love; but yellow roses mean jealousy, pink roses mean happiness and the white ones mean-"

I pause. Naruto looks at me in anticipation. When I don't continue, he presses, "Well? What does it mean?"

"Devotion," I mumble, looking the other way. I silently pluck some red and pink roses then continue down the rows.

"What about this?" Naruto asks as I pluck a carnation.

"A carnation is for a first love, meaning it's pure," I answer briskly, moving on. I move to the last flowers I plan on taking—the gardenia. "This one is one of my favourites. It means a secret love."

Naruto raises a brow, "Well if these two people are getting married, their love isn't so secret."

I roll my eyes, "Don't be so pessimistic. It _is_ a secret love because no one knows their love the way they do. It's something between only them."

"Are you sure it's not for some inappropriate type of love? Like a sensei and a student?"

"Naruto! You're spoiling the flower and its meaning," I shoot him a glare.

"Sorry! It's just confusing," Naruto defends. He shuts up for the rest of the time.

When I've decided on all of my flowers, it's time to go. Somehow Naruto ends up carrying my basket as we walk. We're still walking in silence as we leave the flower farm. As we walk, I stare at the ground before us, zoned out of reality until Naruto kicks a rock in front of me. I kick it back in front of him and we silently continue the game all the way back to the gates to the village.

"So, where to now?" Naruto questions.

I point to the rock in front of his feet, "Aren't you going to kick it back?"

Naruto bends over and picks up the rock. He throws it in the air and catches it again, "I'll hold it instead."

"Way to ruin the game," I whine, taking the basket from him. "I'm going back to the shop to assemble these bouquets for my client. You are free to do whatever you like."

"I'm kind of hungry," Naruto rubs his stomach, "You wanna get some ramen?"

I shiver at the memory of my last ramen experience with Naruto. I decline the offer, "No thanks; I'll pass."

With a shrug, Naruto digs his hands in his pockets and walks in a different direction. He calls out behind him, "Suit yourself, you're missing out!"

With a scoff I mutter, "What a loser."

Shaking my head, I make my way back to the shop. I dig through the basket to find the white rose I snuck in and stare at it. A white rose. Devotion. I sigh at the irony and can feel my heart skip a beat. Naruto was with me in my favourite place in the world. It was weird to share that with someone, since I haven't even taken Shikamaru or Choji there. However, I felt so exposed sharing that. Next time, I'll make Naruto take me to his favourite place.

Entering the shop, I head to the back of the store immediately. I pluck out some vases off the shelf and begin assembling the flowers in different arrangements in each vase. It takes me a while to finish, but I don't mind. I place the finished products on the counter where the client can easily take a look at and I stare at my works proudly.

Weddings are common for our shop, so I always receive the honour of arranging the bouquets. With every client I feel I get better and better. Or maybe the meaning of the bouquets just grows on me more and more each time I make it. All the different flowers meaning love all together to commerate two people's special relationship. I guess I kind of want that for myself one day.

I hear the jingle of the door and turn to see Sakura entering the shop. She's not smiling.

Sakura approaches the counter and crosses her arms at me, "Ino, we need to talk."

"Uhm, okay?" I respond, feeling extremely confused. I list all the stuff this could be about in my head. I haven't made fun of her eyebrows all week, I didn't steal anything that's hers—or anyone else's for that matter, I didn't pull any pranks on her... So what is she here for?

"You've been acting very—" Sakura circles her hand in front of her, trying to find the right words, " _bizarre_ lately, and I want to know why."

My eyebrows furrow and I feel offended by her comment, "Excuse me? How am I acting 'bizarre'?" I make air quotes on the last word.

"I don't know, ever since Naruto came back you've been acting different."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sakura. I'm just doing what I always do."

"Did something happen while you and Naruto were on your mission?"

"What? No! Why would you even ask that?"

Sakura looks at me with concern, "Well, you've been so down in the dumps lately. And today I saw you and Naruto entering the gates together. You looked... I don't know how to describe it, but you've never looked like that before. Not with anyone else—even Sasuke."

My heart will pound its way out of my chest at this rate. I shake my head, "Look, Sakura, Naruto is a friend who just came back after a _two year_ absence. You can't blame me for being happy that he's back; or for spending time with him. And for your information, he was the one who invited himself to tag along today."

Sakura seems reassured with my answer, but still has some uncertainty when she says, "Alright..."

"Did you follow me here just to interrogate me?" I ask.

Sakura seems to remember something as her face lights up with a grin, "Actually, no! Happy birthday, Ino! I'll see you later tonight at your house."

"What do you mean, 'later tonight at my house'?!"

"Your dad said we could come over to spend the night with you on your special day! I thought you knew?"

"Way to ruin the surprise," I say with an eye roll. "Who's 'we', exactly?"

"Oh you know, a few of us here and there."

I try to pry the information out of her but Sakura refuses to spoil the surprise further. The jingle of the door sounds and my client smiles and waves at me. I turn to Sakura and shoo her away, "You better have a good present to give me."

Sakura laughs as she exits the shop, "You won't be disappointed."

* * *

My shift is finally over and I can't be any happier to hang up my apron. I don't even know if I have the energy to host my own surprise party in this state.

"Yo! Need a lift?"

I turn around to see Kiba—of all people—approaching me while riding Akamaru. I raise a brow in surprise but don't decline the offer. Kiba lends me a hand and helps me climb onto the huge dog. I can't help asking, "What are you doing here?"

"I got orders from Sakura to give the birthday girl a ride home," Kiba explains. He sheepishly adds, "Couldn't exactly decline."

I roll my eyes and wrap my arms around his abdomen. Akamaru begins moving—in quite a slow pace. I suspiciously question, "Kiba, why are we going so slow?"

"Why not?" Kiba counters. I roll my eyes at his response. Kiba looks over his shoulder and says, "Oh, by the way, happy birthday! Here's my present."

He hands me a small box and I can't help smiling. I wouldn't really consider Kiba a close friend but I can't help being touched by the sweet gesture. Opening the box, I see it's a hair clip, with a violet at the end.

"Kiba, you really didn't have to get me this," I say, already slipping the clip into my hair in order to hold my bangs away from my face.

"It's nothing, a bunch of us went out together to get you gifts," Kiba says with a grin. "I'd argue that mine's the best one, but Naruto seems to think his is."

"Naruto? He bought me a gift?" I question. It's more to myself than to Kiba, but he answers me anyway.

"Of course! He's your friend! You didn't think he'd be that dense now, did you?"

"Actually I did."

"Good point."

We arrive in front of my door moments later. Kiba hops off Akamaru and helps me down. He walks me to my door without being asked and says, "That was fun. If you wanna ride Akamaru again, you can any time."

"Thanks, I'll take note of that," I reply, not knowing what else to say.

Opening the door, I hear noise makers and have confetti flown at my face as people shout, "Surprise! Happy birthday, Ino!"

I grin even though it's not quite a surprise. Kiba follows me inside as I greet all the people who are invading my house. Giving Tenten a hug, I ask, "What's all of this?"

"Oh shut up, as if you didn't know we were throwing you a party," Sakura says, being the next one to embrace me.

"Yeah and who's fault is that?" I retort, returning the hug.

"Happy birthday, Ino!" Hinata exclaims, placing a tiara on my head before engulfing me in a hug.

"This is troublesome," Shikamaru mutters while rubbing the back of his head.

"Shut up," I say and hug my long time friend before moving on to my other one. "Thanks for coming, Choji!"

"I brought the chips!" Choji replies after letting me go.

I feel an arm wrap around my shoulders that isn't quite familiar and turn to find myself smoothly embraced by Kiba. I return the hug and point to the clip in my hair as we part. He winks and heads for the kitchen.

I awkwardly hug Shino and Neji before coming up to Lee who exclaims, "Ino! Today, you become a little bit less youthful!"

"Uhm, thanks...?" I reply, quickly letting go as soon as I hug him. This is beginning to get tiring already.

"Hey, Ino," I turn around to see none other than Naruto standing before me. He grins sheepishly, "Saving best for last, I see."

Opening his arms to me he says, "Happy birthday, Ino!"

"Thanks, Naruto," I say, hesitating before wrapping my arms around him. He places his arms around my shoulders and I can't help lingering a moment too long. Standing there in his arms I could hear his steady heartbeat while praying he can't hear mine beating twice as fast.

I let go and quickly turn away. Shikamaru raises a brow and I send him a glare. What's so wrong about giving Naruto a hug? I gave everyone one! It would be weird not to give him one. Shikamaru seems to read my mind because he sighs and shakes his head before digging his hand inside Choji's chip bag.

"Okay, it's time to start the party!" Sakura announces. "Everyone gather in the living room. We're gonna start with gifts."

We gather around my living room and take a seat on the ground. On my left is Hinata and on my right is Sakura. Sakura hands me gift after gift, waiting for me to open them. To be polite, I try to make use of the gift immediately after it's given to me; like I did with Kiba's gift. I wrap the purple scarf Hinata bought me around my neck, and wear the jacket Tenten bought me, the insect pin from Shino, and finally the socks and shoes from Neji and Lee.

"What a drag," Shikamaru says, hoisting himself from his seat to hand me my gift.

Choji follows behind with a grin, "This is a gift from the two of us."

As I open the box, Shikamaru adds, "And don't think too much of it or get all sentimental."

I gasp to see a framed photo of Team 10 on our first day of being an official team. I feel tears welling up and I slide my finger along the edges of the silver frame. I launch up, wrapping an arm around Shikamaru's neck and my other around Choji's. Shikamaru groans, "I told you not to get sentimental!"

Choji pats me on the back until I let go. I wipe the tears from my eyes and grin at them before feeling a tug on my wrist. I look down to see Sakura pointing to her box. "It's my turn!"

I sit back down and open her gift. My mouth drops again in surprise at the sentimental gift. It's a friendship bracelet. It has both of our names itched onto the gold. I turn to Sakura and give her another hug as well. "Seriously, Sakura, this is too much."

"It's to make up for everything," Sakura says softly.

I roll my eyes, "We've already made up."

"I know, but still."

Before Sakura can get emotional, I turn back to the group. "Who wants some cake?"

Everyone begins heading over to the kitchen where the cake is. I grab a knife and cut the cake into equal pieces. Well, semi equal. It's hard cutting cake when you've got about five guys yelling at you for how bad you are at cutting cake, and another two yelling at you to hurry up. When it's finally done, I head up to my room to find somewhere to place my framed gift. I decide to place it on my night side table, where I'll be able to see it clearly.

A knock on the door frame interrupts me. I turn to see Naruto standing there with a hand in his pocket and the other running through his hair. He seems mildly upset.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" I ask.

Naruto enters my room and shuts the door. My eyebrows shoot up. What does he think he's doing? Turning around, Naruto begins to approach me. I feel my heartbeat quicken and I can't tell if I'm hearing his footsteps or the beat of my heart. Standing a few inches away from me, Naruto lifts a small purple box in front of my face.

"You never opened my gift!" Naruto whines.

Taking the box into my hands, I look up at Naruto. He nods towards the box eagerly, waiting for me to open it. When I do, I'm completely speechless.

It's a necklace with a diamond rose in the middle. I lift it from its box and watch it twinkle as it dangles. "Wow... Naruto... I—I love it!"

"Here, let me help you put it on," Naruto takes the necklace and turns me around. He smoothly pushes my ponytail full of hair to the side before wrapping the necklace gently around my neck. He latches it together and as he does I can't help touching the rose.

"This is so perfect," I say breathlessly. "How did you pick this one out?"

"Yeah, well, I needed an idea on what to get you for your birthday so I tagged along with you to your flower farm," Naruto explains sheepishly. He takes a seat on my bed and continues, "When the guys and I went gift shopping, this seemed pretty perfect. I mean, you seemed to really like those white roses. I saw you slip one in the basket."

My cheeks feel hot. I thought I had been so cunning when I slipped it in.

"Plus, I really like the meaning," Naruto stares at the necklace around my neck. "Devotion. Somehow, it seemed befitting. The necklace may not be white, but I hope diamonds are better."

"Oh, shut up!" I exclaim lightheartedly, unable to stop feeling the necklace. "This is more than perfect."

This gift is by far better than Kiba's, no offence.

After a while of my just touching my new necklace with a goofy grin and Naruto laying on my bed, he finally says, "Can we go downstairs now? I want some of that cake before Cho—I mean, Kiba finishes it."

I roll my eyes and reluctantly agree. If we stay here any longer, people will start to notice. The last thing I need is another interrogation on my relationship with Naruto, on the same day as the previous one. Especially not on my birthday.

Re-entering the party, Naruto and I make it in time to grab the last pieces of cake respectively. As we all eat and chat in our own little groups, Tenten suggests, "Hey guys, wanna play a game?"

"With the guys?" Sakura asks, looking over at the group of boys where Naruto and Kiba were play fighting while most of the others shook their heads. However, you can tell they were all amusing themselves.

Tenten smirks and silently gestures for us to follow her to the backyard. "Let's play truth or dare."

I roll my eyes, "Tenten, that's so predictable."

"Well what else can we do?" Tenten questions.

"Seven Minutes in Heaven?" Hinata suggests innocently. We all turn to her in shock. Hinata raises her hands in defense, "What? It doesn't mean you have to do anything bad in those seven minutes..."

"Should we do it and use that as a way to get Naruto and Hinata in an enclosed room together for seven minutes?" Sakura suggests while wiggling her brows.

"Save it, Billboard Brow," I say in defense of Hinata.

"Hey you know what? Why don't we figure out a way for Hinata to confess to Naruto?"

"That's actually a great idea," Tenten adds.

"Tonight? No way!" Hinata declines.

"We can talk about it later tonight then, when the boys are gone."

I look up at the setting sun, "The guys should probably leave now before my dad comes home and scares them off."

I hear the front door open and cringe, "Nevermind, too late."

The boys are gone as soon as we enter the house. I cross my arms at Inoichi who seems pleased with himself as he sits at the kitchen table. "Dad, that was rude. I didn't even get to say bye to them."

"They didn't seem to mind?" Inoichi counters innocently.

I sigh, "Not even Shika and Cho?"

"Shikamaru said it was drag and left to go find someplace to sleep while Choji went to go find somewhere to eat."

I roll my eyes at their antics. Boys.

"This is perfect, now we can have some girl time!" Tenten exclaims. "Nice to see you Yamanaka-san! We'll be in Ino's room."

Tenten leads the two others upstairs and I groan. Inoichi raises his brows at me, "Well, aren't you going to follow them?"

"Is that really a good idea?" I ask, more to myself than him.

"Take this," Inoichi hands me a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and four spoons. I take them in gratitude and head up to my room.

"Ino! Why didn't you mention you had ice cream sooner?!" Tenten exclaims, taking the ice cream from my hands and opening its seal. She plops down on a corner of my bed. Hinata and Sakura take up two of the other corners and leave me with the last one. Tenten places the ice cream in the middle and I hand out the spoons. After a few spoonfuls of the dessert, Tenten says, "Okay, so now what are we going to do about Hinata?"

"I've been thinking about this for a while and I have an idea," Sakura states. She ignores my snarky comment of "of course you do" and continues, "I was thinking we all go to the carnival tomorrow; the one being held in the Fire Village. We'll all be having fun, going on rides and everything, and then Hinata can say something to Naruto during the ferris wheel, or swings, or whenever."

"That's a great idea actually," Tenten comments. "They'll get to spend some quality time together but still have the whole group as a back up in case things get awkward."

"What if Naruto sticks with the guys?" I ask.

"He won't, I'll make sure of it," Sakura states menacingly.

"What if I tell him in the middle of the ride and then barf on him?" Hinata questions anxiously.

"Honey, you look like you're about to barf right _now_ ," I state simply. Sakura shoots me a glare but I shrug.

"Well if you were in Hinata's shoes, how would you confess to Naruto?" Sakura asks.

"To be honest, I wouldn't confess to him. I wouldn't be planning on when to do it, I would just do it. But I would probably do it in private and not with all of my friends around."

Sakura scoffs, "Well good thing you're not Hinata."

I roll my eyes and sit back as I listen to the girls go into full detail on the plan. I have to admit, the carnival part excites me but the idea of Hinata making her confession tomorrow makes me feel nauseous. If I go on a ride while feeling this way, I will definitely puke on whoever is stuck next to me on any of those rides.

"We should probably go now," Tenten says after eating the last spoonful of ice cream. "It's getting late and I think we've covered everything."

"Yeah, I need to get home before it gets dark," Hinata says, taking a look out my window.

"My shift starts in about thirty minutes so I better go too," Sakura says with a sigh. "Do you have any tea I can have before I leave?"

"Yeah sure," I say, leading the girls downstairs. I head to the kitchen and pour some boiling water in a mug with some green tea leaves. "Thanks for coming, guys."

"Happy birthday, Ino," Tenten congratulates with a wave before stepping out of the house.

"It was great getting to spend your birthday with you," Hinata bids farewell.

Sakura takes the mug from my hands and says, "Make sure to wake up early tomorrow! We'll come pick you up last so you can sleep a bit longer than us since today was your birthday. But still, wake up before 7!"

"Yeah yeah, get out of my house," I say lightheartedly, leading Sakura to the door. "Have fun staying up all night."

"I can run on two hours of sleep, you know," Sakura states matter-of-factly before leaving.

I shut the door and sigh. Tomorrow is going to be quite a day.

* * *

 **A/N: Don't forget to review!**

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 _Reviews are highly appreciated ^^ I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Let me know what you thought of it, or what you want to happen in the next chapters to come, I'm open to suggestions. xoxo_

 _(whoop whoop for over 4.6k words, I'm trying hard guys, I'm not used to writing this long of chapters. But I love it!)_

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	7. Carnivals & Confessions

Even though Sakura said I would be the last one to be picked up, I wake up two hours early. I get ready in a matter of minutes and sit around anxiously to fill my free time. At 7 o'clock sharp there's a tap on my front door. I open it to reveal Sakura, Tenten and Hinata at my door with Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru and Naruto behind them.

"Ready to go?" Tenten questions.

I nod and quickly exit the house. The distance between Konohagakure and the Fire Village is only forty minutes. We spend the walk hyping ourselves, with the boys daring one another to go on the scariest of rides. Turning around to the boys, I announce, "I'll buy the guy who can ride the Slingshot whatever they want for dinner!"

"You're on," Kiba responds triumphantly. He rubs his stomach and cheers, "I'm having a feast tonight, boys!"

"Lifetime supply of ramen, here I come!" Naruto exclaims.

"Ino, if you can ride the Zipper and not have a heart attack, I'll pay for the winner's dinner instead of you," Tenten challenges.

I grin from ear to ear, "You're on!"

We continue challenging one another to ride the scariest of rides until we reach the Fire Village. We don't pay attention to our surroundings as we make our way to the carnival, but as we make our way through the entrance onto the carnival grounds, I notice many people staring in our direction.

Placing my hand on Sakura's arm, I ask, "Why are so many people looking at us?"

Sakura shrugs, "A lot of people from other villages come to this carnival. Maybe it's just appealing since there's so many of us together."

Somehow, I don't get the feeling that's the reason. A part of me feels strange and extremely uncomfortable with the staring, which is unusual. I turn around to look at my group of friends, but they don't seem all that strange; staring is unnecessary.

"So where should we start? Should we head over to the Slingshot?" Kiba asks.

"How about we start with the Mega Drop?" Sakura suggest, pointing directly ahead of us. Agreeing with her suggestion, we move to stand in the line up. This ride rises into the air ten stories high before suddenly dropping you almost completely back down.

Our group is split up before riding. Sakura pushes Hinata forward so she'll have to go first with Shikamaru, Choji and Naruto. We watch from our spots as the four of them are rising into the air. Hinata looks terrified between Naruto and Choji, while the latter two are waving down at us with grins on their faces. Shikamaru yawns and I can tell he's wondering why he came here in the first place. When they are suddenly dropped, Naruto cheers in thrill while Hinata screams. Choji is laughing all the way down and Shikamaru even smiles.

Next is Sakura, Tenten, Kiba and I. We find our seats and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. As we begin to ascend I realize there's no going back and I immediately regret my decision of riding this ride. However, I look down to see Hinata giving us an encouraging smile and Naruto giving us two thumbs up. I smile back down at the two but can feel my smile dissipate when we make our sudden descend.

I let out a shrill cry along with Sakura and Tenten but all I can hear is Kiba's cheering. The feeling of falling is exhilarating. My stomach feels as though it's in my chest, but once we stop falling I feel normal. As soon as our safety bar is lifted I dash off the platform and down to where our other half of the group is waiting.

"That was awesome!" I exclaim.

"Eh, wasn't that bad," Shikamaru responds.

When the group gets back together, we walk around to find a new ride. We settle for the Fireball. This ride seats 24 people and turns in a circle while it is swung into the air. It doesn't go too high and it doesn't go upside down, but it goes high enough that you face the ground and feel as though you may fall, but you never do.

We take the seats that are left, so we are mainly scattered. I'm seated next to Sakura and Shikamaru, across from us is Choji and Naruto and on the left is Hinata, Tenten and Kiba.

As we begin to turn, Naruto shouts at me, "No hands!"

He raises his hands in front of him to emphasize. Kiba has his hands in the air, also not holding on to any safety bars. I turn to see Tenten also daring to let go. With a sigh, I decide to place my hands in front of me. I look up at the smiling Naruto and feel assured. However, when the ride swings us higher and we turn so my side is at the top, I scream and alternate between holding on and letting go. Naruto laughs the whole time as we continue to turn, and is met with the other cheers from the others as well.

When it's over and we exit the ride Naruto is still laughing. He places his hand on my shoulder to hold himself up. "Ino, that was the best! It was like you went from being in a romantic comedy movie to a horror movie, and you kept alternating!"

I elbow him in the side, "Shut up, nitwit."

"Can we ride the Claw?" Tenten pleads, slowly inching her way to the direction of the said ride. None of the rest of us have a suggestion on what to ride next, so we follow Tenten.

The Claw is similar to the Fireball; however, it doesn't swing you high in the air. Instead, it spins you around and gradually turns upside down as it continues to spin. Rides that go upside down easily make me sick, so I really dread this one.

As we walk over to the next ride, Naruto nudges my shoulder, "Nice necklace, who bought it for you?"

I stare down at the diamond rose and play along, "Some idiot costumer of the shop. He always buys roses for his unrequited love."

"He sounds like quite the charmer. Not to mention _handsome_ ," Naruto wiggles his brows.

I scoff, "Hardly."

Like last time, our group is split. This time, I sit next to Choji and Hinata. Naruto, Sakura, Tenten and Shikamaru are across from us, and Kiba is on his own but he doesn't seem to mind. As the ride begins, Naruto repeats his previous motion of raising his hands and ordering the rest of us to do the same. I immediately shake my head, "Not this time, Naruto!"

Just then we're flipped upside down and I can't help shutting my eyes while screaming at the top of my lungs. I feel as though I'm the only one screaming until I peek my eyes open to see Sakura and Tenten just as frazzled as me. I begin to calm down as we slowly come to a stop. We follow one another off the platform and search for a new ride.

"I think we should go to the Slingshot before we eat," Kiba says, eyeing the Slingshot.

"Sounds good to me," Naruto says smugly. The two head off on their own before Naruto turns back around and calls out, "Ino! Aren't you coming? You're the one who called for the challenge!"

I look at the group for some help but none is given. Tenten points to the food carts and says, "We'll wait in line for some food. Hurry up, okay?"

I groan and jog my way to the Slingshot. As I approach the line up, I see Kiba and Naruto standing off to the side, scratching the back of their heads. I smirk and cross my arms in front of my chest, "What's wrong? You afraid?"

"This ride isn't free," Kiba explains. "You have to pay 100 ryo."

"Hey, Ino, you wanna pay?" Naruto suggests.

"What? No!" I immediately refuse.

"It was your idea!"

"If you're not paying, you're not riding."

"How about you pay half?"

"How about you pay _me_?"

"Guys, stop," Kiba intervenes. "Let's just pay for ourselves, Naruto. Ino will be paying a lot tonight for our food expenses."

That seems to be enough to get Naruto in line. I scoff and choose to stand by the railings rather than in line with them. I watch as two people get straddled into a ball structure before being flung into the air. This ride is the highest ride, a lot higher than the Mega Drop and slightly higher than the ferris wheel and Vertigo. As I watch the ball spin and begin to bounce once it descends, I can't help thinking there's no way Naruto and Kiba could ride this.

Soon enough, the two make their way to the ball after paying entrance. They take their seats fearlessly and I feel worried about all the possible outcomes. They could win which would suck for me, they could lose which is good for me but bad for them which then would make it bad for me (because I'm too nice), or this ride could break; and the last thing I want is for them to get hurt.

Naruto looks at me from his seat and yells, "Thanks for paying for my food in advance!"

"In your dreams!" I respond.

"We'll see," Naruto says smugly.

After checking the safety gears, the worker starts the ride. Kiba howls as they are flung into the air. Damn it, this means I'm paying for dinner. The two finally get off the ride and make their way towards me. Naruto runs a hand through his hair while grinning, "Does this mean I'm dreaming?"

I roll my eyes and slap his stomach. I instantly regret it when I feel how hard his abs are. I hide the flush of my cheeks by turning the other way, "Let's go get something to eat."

The three of us head to the food carts and find Tenten waving us over from a line up. We join the rest of our group, much to the dismay of the people standing behind. I hear a few complaints and a lot of whispers. Looking around, I notice it's not just the people in line staring at us. I had a feeling people have been staring all along but now it's just ridiculous.

"Sushi? Why did you guys choose this line of all lines?" Naruto questions, seemingly unaware of the glares he was receiving.

Tenten rolls her eyes, "The ramen stand is a few feet away if you want to go there."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Naruto states, heading over in the direction Tenten points to. As he walks away I notice all the eyes that were on our group disappear. They all stare at Naruto. That's strange, why is everyone watching him? Well, I guess I'm doing the same thing, but I know Naruto personally. These strangers are too interested in him and I don't understand why.

"Ino? What are you looking at?" Shikamaru asks, although he seems to already know by the warning tone in his voice. I know he's really telling me, _If you keep staring at Naruto, you're going to get caught._

"I was just considering whether I should also have some ramen," I lie, "but since Naruto is heading that way, there's no way I'd follow him."

"Hey, good idea!" Sakura exclaims. "Hinata, go over there!"

"What? Me? No!" Hinata protests, turning different shades of red whilst covering her face with her hands.

"Hinata," Tenten says while crossing her arms, "are you going to be able to confess today or not?"

"I will, but we said during the ferris wheel, remember?" Hinata says.

"Yeah but you can give him a heads up," Sakura says, imitating Tenten by crossing her arms. "You can tell him you're really excited about the ferris wheel and you want to ride with him."

Before Hinata has a chance to reply, Tenten has already guided Hinata in Naruto's direction. Tenten smirks and says in Hinata's ear, "Look at him all alone over there, don't you think you should keep him company? Even as just a friend?"

"I guess you're right..." Hinata says before making her way to approach him. Sakura forces us to act natural, therefore none of us are allowed to look in their direction at all. We order our food individually and carry it over to a bench nearby. It's in an area visible to Naruto and Hinata, so they can find us easily.

During the groups conversation, I sneak a glance at Naruto and Hinata. Naruto has just come up to order before the worker seems to say something rather rudely before shooing Naruto away. I watch as Hinata is shocked by the words and Naruto convinces her to forget it. The two head over to our bench with disappointment.

"Hey, why didn't you guys order anything?" Sakura questions.

Naruto takes a seat next to Shikamaru and pouts, "They ran out of my favourite ramen! I didn't want any other kind other than the pork, but it was gone."

I see Hinata give Naruto a look which he ignores. That was definitely not the case, but no one else seems to see through the lie.

"Ino, can I have a bite?" Naruto asks.

"No! Get your own," I respond. "What makes you think I'd give you any of my food?"

"I thought I'd try my luck," Naruto shrugs. "Shikamaru, can I have a bite?"

Shikamaru sighs and pushes his tray between him and Naruto in order to share. Naruto cheers and digs in. Sakura, Tenten and I each offer food to Hinata to which she gladly accepts.

"So since none of us want to vomit, what should we do when we're done eating?" Tenten wonders.

"We could walk around and maybe go on less extreme rides," I suggest. "Like the Merry-Go-Round or the ferris wheel?"

"Save the ferris wheel for night," Sakura quickly orders. With a wink she adds, "It's gonna be a show stopper."

"I'm still anticipating the ride on the Zipper," Kiba comments. "It's one of my favourites."

I gasp, remembering Tenten's challenge, "Tenten! I'm totally going to ride the Zipper and you'll end up having to pay for Kiba and Naruto's dinners!"

I begin cheering loudly at the memory. Tenten scoffs, "We'll see if you'll actually be up for it or not."

"You guys ready to ride more rides?" Kiba asks once everyone—except me—is done eating. I decide to carry my plate with me while following the group as we rise from the bench and begin walking around. At the back of the group, I get a chance to speak to Hinata.

"Hey, Hinata," I start, not taking my eyes off Naruto who is standing at the front of the group, "what happened back there with Naruto at the ramen stand?"

Hinata looks at me with a saddened expression before answering, "They refused Naruto service. They gave him no reason, they just told him to beat it while calling him rude names."

I can feel my blood boil at the sound of that. I ask, "Have you been noticing the stares Naruto has been getting?"

"I thought it was just me who noticed it."

"I have a bad feeling... Not that I care about the idiot but it worries me if he's being treated harshly like this for no reason."

"I want to ask, but there's already enough I'll be doing tonight."

I suddenly remember that the girl standing next to me is planning on confessing to the boy she's loved since we were still in ninja school. Swallowing back a lump in my throat I ask, "Are you ready?"

"It's not like I'll be any more ready tomorrow, so I should just do it today. Right?"

I laugh but nod, "Go for it; full stead."

Hinata nods with determination before starting a conversation with her team mate. A moment later, I realize Naruto has fallen behind the group and is now walking alongside me. I hold out my left over food to him, "Can you please eat this? If I eat any more, I might vomit."

Naruto doesn't need to be told twice. He takes the food and scarfs it down. As he takes his last few bites I can't help but ask, "Hey, Naruto, what happened back there at the ramen shop? I saw the old man say some stuff to you and it looked pretty harsh."

Naruto stiffens at my words before placing a fake smile on his face and responding, "He must have been in a bad mood since today is a busy and hot day."

I take a look around and the staring hasn't stopped. Turning back to Naruto, I ask, "Have you noticed the amounts of stares you've been getting today? It's so annoying! The people in this village are so goddamn rude."

Naruto scoffs, "Don't worry about it, Ino."

"Don't tell me what to do, whisker face," I threaten. "Do you have any idea why they're looking at you like that? I've never seen—"

"I said, don't worry about it," Naruto interrupts in a firm voice.

"Naruto..." I stare at him. He looks just as perplexed as the first day of our mission together. So much is on his mind right now, I can tell.

 _Baka,_ I mentally curse myself, _of course he noticed all the stares and of course he's upset about them. Who wouldn't be? I shouldn't have drawn attention to it._

"Let's go ride the Merry-Go-Round," Naruto exclaims cheerfully again.

The ride was over as quick as it took us to get on it. Immediately afterwards Kiba drags us to the Vertigo. This ride is similar to the swings but instead of riding individually, you ride in pairs. It's also the second tallest ride and the view is amazing. It's always been my favourite.

Sakura and Tenten make it their mission to pair it off so Hinata and Naruto are together. Tenen announces, "Alright, Shika and Cho can sit together for this one, Sakura and I will pair up together here and so..." Tenten gives Kiba a look, signalling for him to move closer to me.

"Oh, hey, can I sit with Ino?" Kiba volunteers, pointing his finger at me. "I haven't gotten to ride any rides with her yet."

"Damn, I'm jealous of Ino," Naruto jokes.

"Next time," Kiba promises.

"Cut the bromance," Sakura orders, feeling satisfied with the arrangements. "So that leaves Hinata and Naruto! Great!"

We spend the next few minutes listening to Naruto and Kiba banter as we wait for time to pass. When we finally reach the front of the line, I can feel my heart beating quicker. The view from this ride is none like any other. I sit in the inner seat and wait for Kiba to strap himself in next to me.

Slowly the swings begin to turn and lift higher and higher and I'm breathless by the beauty below me. I don't even pay attention to Kiba sitting next to me, or even look ahead where Hinata and Naruto are. The breeze is light and slightly chilly and whips my bangs away from my face. I never want the ride to end.

But of course, it does. And as it begins to die down, I finally notice the boy sitting next to me. I ask, "Wasn't that the best ride ever?"

Kiba shrugs, "It's nice and all, but where's the adrenaline? The Slingshot is better."

I roll my eyes, "Whatever, I knew you wouldn't be able to appreciate such a simple yet magnificent ride."

"Oh yeah, sure," Kiba laughs, " _magnificent_ indeed."

I sigh and pout until we're finally done with the ride. When our group recollects together off the platform, I say, "Hey guys, Kiba wants an adrenaline rush. How about we go on the Zipper now?"

"Yes! Now you're talking!" Kiba cheers, punching a fist in the air.

Tenten smirks, "This will be the deciding moment to see who has to pay for Dumb and Dumber's dinner."

"Hey!" Kiba and Naruto complain, before getting into an argument on who's Dumb and who's Dumber.

"Obviously you're both dumb for even having this stupid argument," I mutter.

"We heard that!" The two shout simultaneously. I shake my head, why was Naruto's best friend Sasuke? He seems to have a lot more in common with Kiba.

The wait for the Zipper is torturous. This ride spins you vertically around its base and every time you go over the top, there's a large chance you will make a 360 degree turn since the seats are not tightly bound, but instead left to dangle. The only sense of security is that it has a cage to enclose you—even though with the safety bar, that wouldn't be necessary; but it is comforting.

"Yamanaka! You're riding this one with me!" Tenten orders. "I need to see it with my own eyes that you don't suffer from a heart attack."

"Honestly, if I had a heart attack up there, you would probably laugh and cheer instead of helping me," I state matter-of-factly.

Tenten thinks about it before shrugging, "That would be quite a bittersweet moment."

Predictably, the pairs are Kiba and Naruto, Choji and Shikamaru, Sakura and Hinata and of course Tenten and I. As each pair is strapped into their cages individually, I feel extremely anxious. I can feel my heart pounding inside my rib cage, and I'm most likely fearing for my life.

"You'll be fine," Sakura assures once seeing my pale face, "There's a cage to catch you if you were to fall, which you wouldn't."

I wish she would give me some more reassuring words but it's her turn to board the ride next. I look to my side to see Tenten smirking, "Not about to have your heart attack already, are you?"

"I just might," I truthfully confess.

The safety door is opened and Tenten makes her way to the cage we're mean't to board. I follow behind with heavy steps. I pray to Kami I will make it out alive and send my father a mental message about loving him and feeling sorry for all the wrongs I've done and to pass the message on to everyone else when I'm gone.

Before I know it, the safety bar is pulled down, locking Tenten and I into our seats before closing the cage. There are three cushioned handle bars for me on the inside of the cage door, directly in front of me. There are another three for Tenten. Why three? We only have two hands.

I shrug it off and grip two of the bars before I feel us rise so the next pair can take their seat. I protest but take a sigh of relief when we stop so the workers can add the last pair onto the ride. In a cage above us, I hear squeaking and look up through the cage to see Naruto and Kiba swinging around hard enough to get their cage doing 360 spins already. Their cheers match their actions as the laugh when they're back upright.

Slowly the ride begins to move and I curse for not paying attention. Before I know it we're at the top and we rotate so we're now upside down and we continue to spin. I scream in terror and clutch onto the handle bars with dear life. As the ride continues and I feel my soul leaving my body, there's a moment where we're jerked forward and my forehead lands on the middle cushioned handle bar and I realize what that bar is for. The whole time, all I can hear is my own shouts and Tenten's laughter.

Half way through the ride I lose my voice and energy to scream, but have it revived every time to are upside down. I shut my eyes and wait for the ride to be over. As we approach the top for yet another rotation which I dread, the ride slows down and stops just when Tenten and I are at the top.

I look down to see Naruto and Kiba exiting their cage. They have huge grins on their faces, and they stand just off the platform waiting for the rest of us. Two by two the pairs are let out of their cages. I can't even comprehend anything in the moment. When our cage door is finally opened, I run off the platform in an instant in the best way that I can with my shaky legs.

"Ino, you okay? You look like you just died," Kiba observes, poking my forehead.

I slap his hand away and glare at him before turning to see a smirking Tenten approaching us. I point at her face and say, "What's with that smirk, huh? I just won the challenge."

"Yeah," Tenten shrugs casually, "But getting to experience that with you was worth it. You were screaming so loud, I was worried you would pop my ears!"

While Tenten laughs, I bring my attention to the group. Looking at the sky, I realize the sun is beginning to set.

"Hey the sun is beginning to set! Think we should grab some _dinner_ "—I smirk triumphantly at Tenten who is no longer laughing—"before riding the ferris wheel?"

"Sounds good to me," Sakura nods.

The rest agree and we head back to the food area. We seem to fall back in line for sushi, but I notice the ramen cart's line up is nearly nonexistent. I roll my eyes, obviously with their kind of crappy service this would be the result. However, I notice Naruto eyeing the cart longingly and I sigh.

Without the others noticing, I slip out of line and head up to the ramen cart. When the old man asks me for my order, even though I wish I could punch him or throw a kunai at his head, I order a bowl of pork ramen. To make sure Naruto will eat it and not tell me to eat it for myself, I order myself a bowl of chicken ramen.

Instantly, I receive my order and rejoice at the sight of the ramen. Damn, Naruto's love of ramen is wearing off on me. I pay for the food before taking them with me back to the bench where we last sat. I wait patiently for the group to join me.

"Where did you go?" Sakura questions, taking a seat next to me.

As the rest of the group takes their seats, I turn to Naruto who sits on my other side. Pushing him the bowl of pork ramen, I casually say, "Looks like they restocked."

Naruto's eyes widen and he stares at the ramen before staring at me. Even though I act as though it's nothing, seeing the happiness and gratitude in Naruto's eyes makes it feel special.

"Ino, you really didn't have to! You won the challenge, right? You didn't have to pay for my dinner," Naruto says, emphasizing by pointing to his dish of sushi.

I shrug nonchalantly, "Well it's here now so you might as well eat it."

"I could always eat it," Kiba suggests.

I shoot dog-boy a glare before adding, "Besides, like you'd really feel satisfied eating sushi."

I turn back to Naruto and feel slightly embarrassed to find him staring at me. "What?"

Naruto breaks out into a grin and I can feel the happiness radiating off of him. Knowing everyone is staring at me I groan and roll my eyes, "Seriously Naruto, are you going to just stare at me or eat? Because if you don't eat now, your ramen is going to be cold and soggy."

At those words, Naruto digs in. We all begin to eat our dinners and have casual conversation. I can see the secret looks Tenten and Sakura are giving Hinata, and my heart drops knowing things are about to change after this dinner. The thought makes me lose my appetite so I push my remaining ramen to Naruto, which he devours.

Once all the food is gone, Sakura grins, "Time to head to the ferris wheel!"

Tenten cheers as we all stand up and head towards the ride. There's quite a line up, but since there are so many seats, the line goes by quickly. As we wait, Sakura instructs, "I'm sitting with Tenten, Ino said she wanted to sit with Shikamaru, so that leaves Choji to sit with Kiba and oh—I guess Hinata and Naruto are left."

"I never said-" Sakura elbows me in the ribs. I dig my heel into her foot and laugh awkwardly, "Oh yeah, Shika, I thought you'd like this kinda stuff."

"How troublesome," Shikamaru says with an eye roll, seeing fully well through Sakura's tricks.

"Hinata, you okay with riding with me?" Naruto asks the bluenette.

Hinata's face looks like a tomato as she nods her head and answers, "Yes, I would like to ride with you."

Sakura and Tenten wiggle their brows at one another. I roll my eyes but give Hinata an encouraging smile when she looks. As the line shortens, I can see the determination grow in Hinata's eyes. Naruto is completely oblivious, but I catch him looking around the group silently; first to Sakura then Hinata and then he catches my eye. I quickly look away before he can read my eyes and suspect something. I don't have time to read his expression so I'm confident he doesn't read mine.

Shikamaru and I take our seats together first. When we rise, I see Hinata and Naruto taking the next seat followed by Sakura and Tenten and then Kiba and Choji. We're far enough from one another to not hear one another but since the ferris wheel turns in a circle, at the top we are in front of the group and at the bottom we are at the back of the group.

The ride slowly begins to start. Shikamaru asks me, "Why are you doing this?"

I don't quite know what action he's referring to but I'm guessing he means allowing Hinata to confess to Naruto. I sigh, "Because they're mean't to be together."

"How are you so sure?"

As the ride reaches the bottom and I catch a glimpse of the back of Naruto's head and Hinata speaking to him, I feel a lump in my throat, "I was never meant to like someone like him to begin with. I was supposed to continue chasing after the cold, pretty boys. Instead, I waited for this whisker faced idiot who is now finally going to be with someone who deserves him."

Shikamaru shakes his head, "You have never had insecurities when it comes to boys."

"Well, I guess we're all quite surprised, aren't we?"

Shikamaru and I ride in silence for the rest of the ride. I focus on the setting sun and how perfect this moment must be for Naruto and Hinata. Every time the ride is at the bottom I stare at the back of their heads. It's hard to tell what's happening, and I can only imagine how Naruto will be reacting.

As the ride comes to a stop, Shikamaru and I exit the ride, followed by Hinata and Naruto, Sakura and Tenten, and Kiba and Choji. Immediately, Sakura and Tenten pull Hinata aside, saying they need to use the restroom. I skip out on the party; I don't want to hear the details.

Instead, I ask Choji, "Hey, you wanna go get some dango with me?"

"Yes! This ride made me hungry," Choji complains.

"Hey, buy me some!" Kiba pleads.

"We'll see," I tease, before turning to Shikamaru, "You want some, Shika?"

"If it's not troublesome," Shikamaru answers.

I turn to the silent Naruto. He has his hands in his pockets and looks to be deep in thought. I wave a hand in front of his face, "What about you, Naruto? Would you like some dango?"

Naruto looks at me and I bite my lip when I see the distant look in his eyes. He answers, "Can you and I go buy it together?"

"Yeah, you can come with me and Cho-"

"Alone?"

I freeze in shock. I've never seen Naruto like this. I turn to Choji, "I guess, if it's okay with Choji?"

Choji shrugs, "Go for it, but bring me back a lot of dango!"

I nod and Naruto and I begin to walk off. We're silent at first, until Naruto kicks a rock in front of me. I kick it back before speaking, "What happened on the ferris wheel?"

Naruto sighs, "I'm sure you know."

I roll my eyes, "Obviously I don't know the details, otherwise I wouldn't have asked."

"Hinata confessed her feelings to me," Naruto announces. "I was completely caught off guard."

"Well, what did you say?" I bite my lip as I anticipate his answer. I can feel and hear my heart beating; almost as hard as during my ride on the Zipper.

"I told her I'd think about it."

I blink. _Think_ about it?

"But Naruto, how do you _feel_ about Hinata?"

Naruto takes a really deep breath, "I don't know. Recently—and I know it's uncharacteristic—but somehow my feelings for Sakura have been lessening. Slightly, of course—but enough that I don't see her as the only woman in the world."

We stand in line for the dango. Naruto takes this moment to turn to me and I turn to him to listen to his words, "Hinata is a dear friend of mine. I think she's pretty, kind, strong, and very intelligible. But I don't know if I feel the same way just yet. I know she's liked me for a long time, and I'm worried all of her efforts will end up to be wasted."

Naruto's eyes land on the necklace he gave me. The diamond rose meaning devotion.

I hesitate before offering my 2 cents, "Listen Naruto, don't force yourself to be with her. At the same time, don't hide from her because you're afraid. You could give her a chance and see where it goes. I mean, for someone like Hinata to confess—it takes a lot of courage."

"Well I don't think confessing should be that hard. If you like someone, then they need to know how you feel, otherwise, what's the point?"

I feel my heart skip a beat at his words. He continues, "With that being said, I'm glad Hinata confessed. And you know what? I think I'll follow your advice."

I try my hardest to raise the sides of my lips in a smile while forcing out the words, "That's good to hear."

We pay for our massive amount of dango before returning to our group. Handing out the dango's, we come to a consensus that it's time to head home. Naruto places a hand around Hinata's arm, asking, "Can I walk with you?"

Hinata nods and the two move to the back. Sakura and Tenten give approving nods before dragging the rest of us ahead to give the pair some space. I don't mind. In fact, during our whole way back, I don't look behind me once. I head straight home, not adding into any conversations or playing any games.

When we enter the gates to the village, I give a quick goodbye to our group before walking home as fast as I can. I can't help breathing heavily as I walk. Entering my house, I feel all of the overwhelming emotions threatening to escape.

"Hey, Princess! How was the carnival?" Inoichi greets from the living room.

I bow politely, "Hi daddy, it was fine. I'm really tired though, all of those rides made me exhausted. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

I run up the stairs before I can hear his reply. I dash into my room and jump into my bed, allowing myself to finally breathe. I can't believe I was so stupid. And even now, I can't stop my feelings. Now I have to face the facts.

Everything's about to change.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Guys, this chapter is 6.3k words. That's the most I've ever written for any chapter for any story!_

 _Reviews are very very very much appreciated!_

 _Questions for today: When do you guys go back to school? I have another two weeks. (_ TT-TT) _Are you guys excited or not?_

 _Another questions: What was your favourite part of this chapter?_


	8. Camping: Summer of Swimming

It's been a week since the carnival. I haven't seen or spoken to anyone since then. I told daddy I was sick and stayed holed up in my room, contemplating everything. It's unfair of me to feel this way because he's not mine to have, but I can't help reliving our mission together. When it was just the two of us, I felt hopeful, that maybe things could evolve between us. But now they can't because although he has moved on from Sakura, he's now moved onto Hinata. And Hinata is such a great girl, she deserves her moment. I hate myself for wishing him to be mine when I know Hinata deserves him so much more.

"Honey," Inoichi's voice calls out from the other side of my closed door. "Your friends are here to see you."

I fake coughing noises and squirm under the covers and respond, "I'm sick!"

The door creaks open and Sakura's aggravated voice says, "Oh come on, this is so pathetic."

"Hey, watch your mouth, Billboard Brow," I retort, pulling the covers down enough to see her leaning against my doorframe.

Tenten enters the room and gives me a look of concern. "Ino, are you okay?"

"I must have gotten food poisoning from the sushi," I say lamely. My weak attempt for an excuse doesn't fool either of them but they decide to move past it.

"Anyway," Tenten says, taking a seat on the corner of my bed. "The gang wants to go camping tomorrow, are you in?"

"I don't know…" I respond, thinking of having to see Naruto and Hinata together.

"Come on Ino, you've been holed up in here for a week," Sakura says, taking a seat on the opposite corner of the bed. "Don't you want to go out and have some fun with your friends?"

"I'm not in the mood," I pull the blankets back over my head.

"Well then get into the mood," Sakura retorts, pulling the whole blanket off me.

"Hey!" I protest, crawling into a ball to retain heat.

"Seriously, are you okay?" Tenten asks.

I sigh, getting up into a seated position. Instead of responding to Tenten, I say, "Okay, fine. I'll go camping."

"Well, you don't really have a choice," Sakura says. I give her a little glare.

"Can you guys just let me sleep?" I plead, reaching for the blankets.

Sakura and Tenten share a glance before sighing. Tenten stands, saying, "Meet us at the gates at eight in the morning tomorrow."

They two of them finally exit, leaving me to my peacefully quiet room. My heart won't stop beating, I feel anxious to the point of nausea. But I know the longer I wait to see them, the worse it will be. I can't keep running away from this. I guess I'll have to face this tomorrow. Gosh, why did I have to fall for that whisker-faced idiot.

* * *

I'm surprised to find that I have enough energy to even pack my bags, but here I am, standing at the gates of Konoha with no one else here to greet me. This is ridiculous, I was five minutes late, yet no one else is here. This trip is not starting off on the right foot.

"Oi, Ino!" Kiba calls out. I look up to see him approaching me without Akamaru by his side. "Sorry Itook so long, I kept trying to get Akamaru to come, but he was tired from our last mission we just got back from, so I let him stay home. Hey, where is everyone?"

"I have no idea," I state with aggravation.

"It's not every day that Ino is the first to a meeting point." He teases.

I roll my eyes, "Shut up, Kiba."

"How long have you two been waiting?"

I turn to see Naruto and Hinata standing behind me. Naruto's got his left hand in his pocket and his right running through his hair. Hinata smiles at us, her hands gripping the shoulder straps of her backpack. Naruto must have carried the rest of their bags, since there are two bags on either side of him. Hinata apologizes, "Sorry for taking so long, Naruto got hungry on the way."

Naruto smiles cheekily, rubbing his stomach, "Sorry about that."

I look away, unable to ignore the pounding in my chest. Kiba says, "Well I just got here, I don't know about Ino. She's been waiting a while though, so she's kind of grumpy."

I slap Kiba's stomach, causing him to whine.

Naruto places his hand on my shoulder and says, "Hey, you okay Ino? I haven't seen you in a week."

Whose fault is that? You could have visited.

"I'm fine," I state hotly, shrugging his hand off. Where his hand was now tingles. "I'm just frustrated."

"Um, okay," Naruto says, and I can bet he shrugged while he did so. But I wouldn't be sure, considering I refused to look at him.

Um, okay? What an idiot! Can't he see how angry I am with him? I take a deep breath. Okay, Ino, remember: being petty isn't good for anyone. I will have fun on this trip.

"Yo," I hear Shikamaru lazily greet from quite a ways away. I finally feel like I can breathe. I almost sprint to him. He looks confused but sees my expression begging him to save me from this feeling. He drops his bag and sighs, muttering, "Troublesome."

Although his hands are in his pockets, I grip his arm and lead him away from the group, away from the town, and into the fields. When we're far enough, I let go of Shikamaru and flop onto the ground, screaming into the grass in aggravation.

"Ino, how long are you going to do this?" Shikamaru asks.

"Until I no longer have a voice," I respond before continuing my muffled screams.

Shikamaru nudges my leg with his foot, "That wasn't what I meant."

I pause, then flip my head around to look at him. "What do you mean, then?"

Shikamaru looks like he's contemplating sitting down but decides against it, possibly assuming we'd be leaving soon and he couldn't be bothered with getting back up. "Listen Ino, either you can lift this burden off your chest and come clean with Naruto or you can continue feeling miserable. And don't tell me you're not miserable, because looking at you right now, I can see right through it."

I roll my eyes, changing positions into a sitting position. Before I have a chance to speak, I hear the group approaching us.

"Yo!" Sakura calls out as the whole group, containing Sakura, Hinata, Naruto, Kiba, and Tenten, approaches. "What took you guys so long? We have to go!" the pinkette nags, dragging the last word.

"Alright, alright," I say in annoyance. Shika and I weren't done talking.

"Here are your bags," Kiba passes me one of them. Naruto offers me the other. I take it without a word or looking at him. After he does it though, he takes it right back.

"Hey!" I reach for my bags but he holds it out of my reach.

"Let me hold it," Naruto offers. "You've already got another bag, I'll just take this load off you."

"You have two already, so just give me my bag." I order, crossing my arms and tapping my foot. Naruto must be deaf because he holds on with an iron grip onto my bag. Refusing to lose, I accuse him of seeing me as weak. Naruto denies it immediately but doesn't give me my bag.

"Okay, if you can take it from me, you can keep it," is his final compromise. Instead of jumping onto him to pin him down and take my damn bag, I notice the group watching us and give up. Instead, I turn around briskly, holding my one bag, and take Shikamaru and Choji with me. Luckily, the direction we were heading towards was the direction of the campsite.

"I hate him," I pout when we're far enough.

"Mmm," Shika replies. Is that... sass? This guy, seriously!

"Chips?" Choji offers, holding his bag out to me. I smile at the gesture but decline the offering.

Behind us I can hear the group in friendly conversation. I take deep breaths to calm myself down. What's my problem, anyway? What am I even frustrated about? I can't be like this the whole trip, it's not fair for the others. I stop in my tracks which causes Shika and Cho to stop as well.

"What's up?" Kiba asks when the group catches up.

I smile at him and the rest of the group. "Nothing, I just thought we should enjoy this trip together as a group. That's what we're here for, right?"

Sakura and Tenten gleefully wrap an arm around my shoulders at my change of attitude. I now join them in conversation. We talk as a group about stories from the past, yesterday, plans for tomorrow, times when Kiba was an idiot, and times Naruto beat Kiba as a dumbass. By the time we make it to the campsite, it's lunch time. The area we're staying in is mostly forests but with a clearing big enough for us to stay in. Kiba cheers, raising his arms into the air; Shika immediately sits down, using a stump as his backrest; Tenten pulls out tents and orders the boys to help her; Hinata gets to work setting up a fire; which leaves Sakura and I to go fill up the water bottles we drank on our way here.

Luckily for Billboard Brow and I, there is a clean-looking stream leading to a lake near the campsite. We walk in silence, until the pinkette decides to break it. She says, "I'm happy for Naruto and Hinata. I admit, I felt a little bit… jealous—no, lonely when the dweeb wasn't hanging around me 24/7, but I think he deserves to be happy. Honestly, you now I would never be able to love him the way Hinata does. I just had to get all of that off my chest."

"Mmm." I respond as my only acknowledgement. Sakura moves on to other topics which I gladly respond to. When we return to the group, we find them all standing around the middle of the campsite, with four tents set up. "What are you guys doing?" I ask while taking a spot between Tenten and Kiba in the circle formation they seem to have going on.

"Trying to decide what our plans are for this afternoon," Kiba answers. "Oh, and just so you know, we've unanimously decided that Naruto and I will be getting individual tents."

"What do you mean?!" I exclaim. "You guys can't do that! That's so unfair!"

"Who wants to sleep in the same tent as these loud, snoring ass guys?" Shikamaru asks. The girls' eyes teasingly turn to Hinata's direction, causing the blunette to turn a deep shade of scarlet. She turns her head towards the trees to avoid the stares.

"But how is this distribution going to work, then?"

"Sakura, Hinata and I will share," Tenten explains. Worriedly, she raises her hands and shakes them in front of her while saying, "Only because you're so close with Shikamaru and Choji! Please don't take it the wrong way that we're leaving you out or anything!"

I'm not mad. In fact, I'm grateful knowing I won't have to stay up all night listening to the three of them talk about Hinata and Naruto's relationship. I know Tenten will go full Analyse Mode. Thinking about that reminds me not to talk about Naruto with Shikamaru again for the trip. At this rate, he'll start avoiding me as much as I'm avoiding the girls. So I smile and cross the room to wrap an around around each of my best friends' shoulders. "Not a problem! We're going to have so much fun! It'll be like a sleepover!"

Shikamaru groans, ducking away from my arm which only causes me to latch it with his arm. He tries shrugging it off and I glare at him, gripping tighter.

"I still don't think it's a good idea to let Ino sleep in the same tent as two boys," Naruto pipes up. Even though I planned on ignoring him, my eyes accidentally follow his voice to see the concern on his face and his perplexed look as he stares at my hand on Shikamaru's forearm.

Unbelievable! This coming from a guy who told strangers we were married and had a baby on the way, joined me in the jacuzzi, and slept in the same hotelroom bed with me. What makes him think he's more trustworthy than Shikamaru(!) of all people!

"You do realize that they've grown up together, right? They're like siblings," Kiba slaps Naruto over the head for his stupid concerns. I smile smugly.

"We used to bathe together as children," Choji adds, "Our parents thought it was cute."

"When we would argue as children, Inoichi-sama always took his 'little girl"s' side," Shikamaru smirked softly, "Then he'd pull me aside to tell me I was the one he actually agreed with."

"You're not bothered by that?" Sakura asks me.

"Nah, Dad was just trying to keep everyone happy," I answer. On that, it's been settled where everyone would be sleeping for the night. We move on to discuss what we plan on doing for the next few hours before supper. First, we'll eat rice balls for lunch. Tenten suggested we go for a hike, but no one else seemed interested considering we walked to this campsite. I look around and realize we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere. "How did we even find this place?"

"What do you mean? My family owns this campsite," Kiba says smugly. "I can sniff it out whenever I need to; it's not just some random place."

I nod at this new information, "Then you must have some ideas for activities, right?"

Kiba scratches the back of his head cheekily, "Well, I don't know, we could go canoeing, maybe play some games…"

"I wouldn't mind going for a swim!" Tenten exclaims excitedly. Her proclamation is met with agreements amongst everybody.

"What about swimsuits?" Shikamaru asks.

For a moment the mood dampens until Tenten clucks her tongue, "You think I don't prepare for these kinds of things," She shakes her head in an unimpressed way as she pulls swimsuits out of her bag.

"That's great and all, but what about the guys?" Choji asks.

"Boxers are like swim shorts, right?" Sakura says without concern for the boys. She takes a pink two-piece from Tenten's selection she holds up for the girls to choose from.

"As much as bras and panties are for girls," Shika responds with a roll of his eyes. "But I guess it could work."

"What's the matter, Naruto?" Kiba asks, swinging an arm around the whisker-faced boy. "Is it because you wear briefs?"

Naruto smirks, "Nah, I'm just shy around you."

"Babe," Kiba responds lightheartedly, "at this point in our relationship, I really hoped you would have been comfortable around me."

The two continue to gush over each other while the rest of us groan and enter our tents to change. Sakura wears a pink two-piece that has a decorative flower design on the straps. Tenten wears a green two-piece with frill designs. Hinata wears a blue one-piece with white flowers patterns. I wear a purple two-piece with diamond studded straps. I decide to let my hair down, as do the rest of the girls. We leave behind our headbands and ponytails in their tent. I'll have to remember to pick my stuff back up when we're done swimming.

We meet the boys by the lake. They sit perched on trees, Shikamaru yawning, Kiba stretching, Choji munching on the remaining chips in his bag, Naruto climbing the tree. When they boys spot us, they immediately greet us and stand in a line. I stifle a giggle at the sight of them in their boxers. However, once again, I can't stop my eyes from landing on Naruto's toned abs—wait, is he doing the same with me? His eyes leave my body as soon as they land on it and I have to blink a few times to unfreeze myself. I look to my left where Sakura, Hinata and Tenten walk. He didn't look at them the same way he just looked at me, not even at Sakura.

No, I must just be imagining things. Plus, it was so quick, how could I mistake it to be something more than it was? We approach the boys with smiles on our faces and greet them back. Tenten covers her eyes from the sun and peers out into the water, stating, "It's kind of weird to think we'll be drinking the water we bathe in later."

That comment is met with grimaces as we all give this idea a second thought. However, Kiba shrugs and jumps right in, exclaiming in delight as he plummets into the water. His dive causes us to all be splashed, causing the girls to protest while it encourages Naruto to follow suit. He dives in after Kiba, creating laughter between the two. I turn to the rest of us and exclaim, "Let's not let them have all the fun!" With that, I jump in. I feel the water engulf me and then lift my body back to the surface. I gasp as I rise, letting the air fill my lungs. My hair feels heavy as it sticks to my body.

The girls have made their way down cautiously and are now making their way towards us. Suddenly, I feel muscular arms wrap themselves around my waist. As it lifts me into the air I shriek out, "Stop!"

But it's too late, I'm plunged head first into the water. Immediately after, the arms let go and instead help me back up. I cough and blow water out of my nose. Turning around, I see that the culprit is Kiba, with Naruto as the accomplice.

"Oh, you are so dead, dog-boy," I threaten, splashing him with all of my might. Naruto laughs, but I turn to him and do the same, "Don't think you're getting away with it either, whisker-faced idiot. Now, Choji!"

I had seen Choji throwing his empty chip bag aside and begin preparing himself to dive in. Now, after the stunt these lunatics pulled, I knew Choji and I would be on the same page. I duck out of the way as Naruto and Kiba stare in surprise and confusion as Choji plants his feet on the ground before taking a jump into the water. The shadow covers the two and I can tell they are saying their farewells. Choji creates a gigantic splash upon contact with the water. It causes Kiba and Naruto to split in opposite directions and go down under the water. A moment later, their heads pop out and they splutter water out of their mouths.

I laugh in revenge. The girls join me as we make our way towards Choji to high-five him. Hinata seems conflicted on whether to go tend to her spluttering teammate or her potential boyfriend. I decide to make it easier for her by swimming over to Kiba. I lightly hit his back, making it easier for him to cough up the water. When he's done, he glares at me so I stick out my tongue. "Karma is a bitch, isn't it?"

Kiba laughs and pulls me towards him in a hug, knowing I would absolutely loathe his embrace. I roll my eyes while trying to resist but he doesn't let go, instead saying, "You know it's on. Prepare yourself Yamanaka, you're going down."

I splash water in his face and say, "Bring it on, Inuzuka."

We return to the larger group. Kiba winks at me and I roll my eyes, deciding to go for a relaxingly slow swim across the lake. Hinata joins me and we swim in silence for a while. I flip onto my back and do back strokes, allowing the sun to heat my face. I shut my eyes and take a deep breath. It really was a good idea to come camping.

"Ino," Hinata's gentle voice breaks the silence.

"Hmm?" I respond instinctively, not paying too much attention. My mind is still in its relaxed state.

"I'm sorry," She responds.

My eyes shoot open. I look at Hinata, who is also on her back. She refuses to look at me, and her face has a solemn expression on it. Her innocence makes me wish she would never feel the need to feel sorry for anything. I ask, "What do you have to be sorry about?"

"I know about your feelings for Naruto," Hinata states in the same solemn tone. I stop my backstroke and so does she. I don't even know what to say, whether I should deny it or not. I'm completely stuck until Hinata continues, "Please, don't feel like you have to hide it from me! I just… I just want you to be honest about your feelings. Trust me when I say it feels like a heavy burden is lifted when you are honest about your feelings."

"How?" Is all I can bring myself to say.

Hinata turns to me finally and gives me a small smile, "I sensed it from the beginning. When he left… It crushed me, and I saw the difference in you as well. I always wondered what happened to change you, but I never put the two together until he came back. When he did come back, you seemed even sadder than before, but then you were happy, and then you were sad again. Every time we talked about him… Every time he was around… You seemed different. Not necessarily in a bad way, but enough to make me wonder.

"It was my selfishness that refused to confront you. I wanted Naruto to finally see me… But after this week of him and I seeing each other more often and all of a sudden not seeing you anymore, it hurt. I don't want a boy to come between my friendship with you. Plus, I saw the way you looked at him earlier, and I see the way he looked at you. Even in the past week, he seemed to be in this deep thought that I could never get through. I think he may have been worried about you as much as the rest of us—maybe more.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you on your mission together, but Naruto is definitely very fond of you. I just wanted to say this so that you can have an opportunity to finally be honest and have him if you want, I'm perfectly content if it means everyone can be happy."

I take a deep breath and give Hinata a small smile as well, "I won't lie to you Hinata, not any more. I… I don't know what I feel towards that idiot, but… I can't just take him from you. You deserve to be happy, more than I do! Please don't let me be the cause for conflict between you and Naruto. He chose you, Hinata. I, too, am perfectly content if it means everyone can be happy. And right now, everyone is happy! Everyone, including me. Let's not change that," I wink at Hinata. Before she has a chance to respond, I continue, "Let's return to the group, okay? I'm kind of tired of swimming."

Hinata simply nods as we make our way back to the group. I shake my head in amusement, seeing Sakura on Naruto's shoulders and Tenten on Kiba's as the two girls try to knock the other down. Naruto makes a dirty move and kicks Kiba in the shin. Kiba glares at Naruto and pushes him back by placing his foot on Naruto's stomach and kicking, causing Naruto to fall off balance and Tenten to shove Sakura off. Tenten and Kiba cheer while Sakura growls and hits Naruto's shoulder in frustration at their loss.

I make my way to land, seeing Shikamaru sitting on the ground, using a tree as a backrest. His eyes are shut but I know he's not sleeping. "Did you even enter the water at all?"

Shika scoffs, "I did, but I grew tired."

"Of course you did," I take a seat next to him and lean onto him. He growls at the contact of my wet skin. I smirk, then say, "Hinata knows."

"Mmm, I suspected she'd catch on," Shikamaru responds.

I sigh and lean my head on his shoulder, "I'm gonna sleep, okay?"

"Mmm."

I begin dozing off with a heavy heart. I don't know what to do anymore… I'm upset at myself for not being able to stop these feelings sooner. I really didn't want Hinata to know about it. It would have been okay if Tenten or Sakura found out, but the worst possible person would have been Hinata, and Hinata found out. What makes it worse is that she was able to see right through me, and no one had to tell her. I sigh, what can I do now? I clench a fist in determination, I'll just have to prove to her that it doesn't affect me at all that they are together. I will show that I'm over him, and hopefully this can all be resolved and we can move on before this gets out of hand. Yes, that's what I'll do.

A small smile crosses my lips as I feel myself being encompassed by sleep.

* * *

 **A/N:** _It's been almost exactly a year since my last update and I feel very sorry for that, but this chapter has been so fun to write. I found myself thinking this story has been pretty bad, but at the same time, I think it's so comforting to just write whatever I want. I feel like the characters are extremely OOC but idk, I'm sorry if it distracts the rest of you but I kinda like where this story is headed. In the future, I hope to create a story that's better written xD For now, I will focus on this story._

 _Reviews are very, very appreciated and provide me with motivation to write!_

 _To the anonymous user who wished death upon me, I'm not going to delete your review. Just gonna keep writing this story to piss you off. :) If you wanna prove you're not a coward, log in next time you wanna make a comment like that. :))_


	9. Camping: Bonfires and Hikes

When I wake up from my nap, it's because Shikamaru has moved out of the way, causing me to plop over onto my side. I groan and rub my head. Opening my eyes, I see the sun beginning to set and the group exiting the water and approaching Shika and me. Kiba scowls while looking at his hands, "I feel like a raisin."

"You guys wanna head back?" Tenten asks.

I stifle a yawn, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Around 2 hours," Naruto says. Pointing towards his chin, he adds, "You've got a little something." I hastily wipe at my chin for any remnants of drool but find nothing. Naruto laughs, "I'm just kidding."

I groan in annoyance. Choji offers me a hand to help me up and I gladly accept. We head back to the campsite as a group. I can feel my empty stomach yearning for something to eat. "Do we have anything to actually eat? Not just snack on?"

Kiba snickers, "I caught a few fish."

"When did you have the time to do that?" Naruto asks.

Kiba shrugs, "I got hungry and started thinking ahead. Hinata, you got the fire going, right? We never let it out. We can roast the fish and eat it. I got enough for everyone." To prove it, Kiba shows us his shirt he had swung over his shoulder. It looked bulky, as though he had stuffed something inside, which undoubtedly was the fish. He smiles triumphantly.

I sigh in relief knowing I can sleep on a full stomach tonight. I shiver as the evening grows colder. As soon as we arrive back at camp, I immediately search my bag for a nice pair of pajamas to change into. We all seem to have the same idea, because the girls are all already half-way changed when I join them. We meet the guys by the fire, where they have changed and are drying off as well. Kiba is towelling his hair when he gets the bright idea to throw his towel at Naruto, who is sitting across the fire.

"I swear to God, if that towel enters the fire," Sakura says in a threatening voice, "You guys won't live to see dawn."

"Are the fishes done?" I ask eagerly, checking on the fish being roasted atop the fire. There are eight of them, four on each skewer, and they hang on two sticks on each end. Kiba turns them every so often.

"You must be patient in order to receive the perfectly crisp fish," Kiba speaks, mocking a professional. I'm unimpressed. Kiba snarls, "They'll be done in a minute."

I nod and take a seat next to Tenten around the fire. I hold my hands out to receive the warmth. I sigh, feeling my hands tingle at the change in temperature. Tenten had prepared a few smores, and offers me one of them. I take it gratefully and take a bite. I watch the fish with anticipation as Kiba pulls them off the fire and slides them onto a plate. He goes around, offering one to each of us. Usually I can't eat plain fish like this, but I'm hungry, and really, what other choice is there?

I barely notice Naruto take up a seat next to me as I munch on my fish. Kiba knows I won't compliment him, but he seems satisfied with my reaction. I only noticed Naruto's presence when I looked around our little circle, so happy to have a group like this. Hinata is sitting across from us, next to Shikamaru and Kiba. A sudden feeling of discomfort washes over me. Although Hinata didn't look at us accusingly, I know she'll be more aware of Naruto and my interactions. I can't help wishing Hinata and I could switch spots—in more ways than one.

"Alright people," Tenten announces once we're all done eating our fish. She raises a dish stacked with smores and continues, "I have forty—forty! Four zero!—smores! So are we gonna have a ghost story bonfire or are these snacks gonna go to waste?" Her question is met with a lot of protest as we stare at the platter, gulping at the sight of the gooeyness of the sweet snacks (which are going to taste so good after a plain food like fish). Tenten smirks, "Darn right. Who wants to start?"

"Well, I mean," Kiba starts with a smug grin. He pops his sweater to create a bigger bulk, "If you really want me to, then I guess I'll start."

Tenten equally distributes the smores amongst the eight of us before Kiba begins.

"This isn't just some ghost story, you hear? This is a paranormal experience I witnessed a few days ago. It was about eleven at night, and I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to go for a walk to tire myself out. Akamaru was already asleep, so I was really on my own. So I'm walking around town, and it's all chill, right? Some vendors are still open, but I didn't want to join in on the nightlife, so I went to the Eastern side of town. It was quiet there, no house lights were on and I assumed everyone was asleep. Well, I suddenly felt as though I was being followed.

"However, there were no footsteps or shadows, and the feeling lasted for blocks, so I knew it wasn't just someone watching me from their window. I reached for my kunai that I knew—no joke—I had placed in my pocket, but they were all gone. I had no weapon on me, so I obviously didn't want to start something. As I passed alleyways, I thought I heard whispers. Trash cans would top over, there would be inhumane scratching noises… Basically, every sign was telling me to GTFO and that's what I did.

"So now you all know that the Eastern side of Konohagakure is haunted."

"What a load of bullshit," Shikamaru comments.

"Hey! You try explaining those occurrences and not resulting with the paranormal as your answer!" Kiba says, shooting Shika with a glare.

"You know what? Konohagakure might actually be haunted!" Naruto exclaims. Kiba crosses his arms and smiles at Shika as though he's won. Naruto continues, "You guys remember that dinner we had when I came back to town? Well, I remember leaving the restaurant to follow Sakura, but then I completely blanked out. And when I woke up? I was in my bed! I guess not all ghosts are evil, then, right?"

I shut my eyes and bite my lip to keep myself from punching the guy. Naruto cocks his head to the side, unaware of my dark aura. He adds, "But I could have sworn I had a dream that the ghost was Ino… Obviously that's not the cause though."

I just shake my head and repeat him mockingly, "Obviously."

We continue to share stories far after the sun had gone down. Every now and then, one of us stifles a yawn. Tenten nearly falls asleep with her head on Sakura's shoulder. The pinkette yawns and announces, "I think we should go to bed. I'm beat."

There are slow head nods as we each drag our feet to our designated tents. Choji and I almost have to carry the 90% asleep Shikamaru to our tent. Once we have him lying in a sleeping bag, Choji plops down on the opposite side of the tent with a thud. I smile at the two before shimmying into my sleeping bag between the two.

After a while of having my eyes shut, I try different positions to get comfortable. I scrunch my eyes in annoyance, it must be due to the nap I took earlier that is making me unable to sleep. Regardless, I stubbornly try to force myself to sleep. I try counting sheep, I try blanking my mind and relaxing my whole body, but nothing works. After a while, I give up. I stare at the top of the tent, listening to the soft breathing from my team mates.

As quietly as I possibly can, I shimmy out of my sleeping bag and tiptoe my way out of the tent. I slowly zip the tent shut on my way out. Turning around towards the fire, I see Naruto sitting with his back towards me. I hug myself to keep myself warm as I approach the ginger. His elbows are rested on his knees as he stares directly at the fire. He must have heard me approaching, because he's not surprised when I ask him in a whisper, "What are you doing up?"

His face had seemed like a statue as he stared in the fire so intensely, but when I ask him the question, his lips curve into a small smile. He whispers back, "I can't fall asleep."

"Same," I reply, sitting next to him. We sit in a comfortable silence, watching the fire crackle. There's a serenity in this moment, with the quiet of the night, the heat of the fire, and the feeling of protection with Naruto by my side…

Without thinking, my head lands itself on Naruto's shoulder. My eyes widen at the action, but Naruto doesn't object, so I leave it. Slowly, I relax. I shut my eyes to really take the moment in, knowing it can't last forever. I just need this, just the two of us without six pairs of eyes watching us. I take in a deep breath of the fresh air and smile.

After what feels like only seconds—although it must have been a few minutes at least—Naruto clears his throat, indicating for me to remove my head. I frown, but do so. He stares at me as I stretch my neck, whisper-asking, "Where's your necklace?"

"I left it at home," I answer. "I didn't want to lose it or get it dirty."

Naruto nods. The question makes me aware of the absence around my neck. I trace my hands over the bottom of my throat, feeling parched. "Hey, Naruto, do you have any water?"

"Yeah, my water bottle should be in my tent," Naruto answers, standing up. Instead of heading towards his tent though, he looks down at me expectantly.

"What?" I ask.

"Aren't you coming?"

I blink before looking at him in confusion, "Why would I?"

"So we can actually talk," Naruto answers. "I mean, are you really gonna go to sleep anytime soon? Because I'm not."

Having no other option, I follow the whiskered boy towards his tent. A shiver runs down my spine, and I don't think it's from the cold. He unzips the entrance and enters, waiting for me to follow. I take off my shoes and do so. He zips the entrance back up to keep bugs from entering. I stand awkwardly beside it, wondering where my place was, or if I should even have a place. Naruto reaches into his bag and pulls out his water bottle, handing it to me. I take it gratefully and quench my thirst.

Naruto hands me a thin blanket to wrap around myself before taking a seat in a corner of the tent. I feel slightly more comfortable with the extra clothing and Naruto at a distance, so I sit on his sleeping bag, which lays by the exit and away from where Naruto is right now. I pull the blanket around me in close, then clear my throat. "So, uh, how's life?"

Naruto scoffs, "Really?"

"What? This is kinda awkward, you know," I respond hotly.

"Life's… good."

I blink at him, waiting for him to continue. When he doesn't, I press, "You wanna add any details to that answer or are we just gonna stare at each other?"

"I wouldn't mind the latter."

"I would."

"Well, what do you wanna know?"

"Hmm… This past week. What have you been up to with Hinata?" Naruto shrugs. I huff, "I know you're just trying to annoy me now. It's not gonna work, it's not like I'm dying to know."

"Dammit," Naruto snaps his fingers as he swings his arm in front of them. He jokingly adds, "I really thought I had you there."

"Haha."

"There's been a lot on my mind recently," Naruto explains, beginning to answer my question.

"What's new?" I ask sarcastically.

Naruto scoffs, "Hey, I'm answering your question. But anyway, this past week, Hinata and I have gotten a lot closer and I'm learning a lot of new stuff about her. She's changed in some ways since I left, but is still the same in many ways, but I guess the same can be said about everyone."

I nod at the information, "How do you specifically feel around her, though?"

Naruto raises a brow, "Are you a therapist?"

"Don't divert the question, Uzumaki."

"I don't know, comfortable? It's always been that way. It's just weird because I always saw her as a nakama."

I scoff, "You're lucky a girl like that would fall for a guy like you."

"Thanks," Naruto rolls his eyes.

"Don't mention it."

"No, but I know. She's such a great person."

I wait for him to continue, but he doesn't. "And? What else?"

Naruto shakes his head, "I don't know! I'm so confused! A week should be enough time to figure things out, but I just can't! The thing is that… I can see what our life would be like together. It would be simple, and sweet. She'd always be there to support me and I'd be lucky to have her, but it just feels… I don't know… As though I'm still... _forcing_ myself into it. It's like settling for something that's good instead of going for something that's great, and Hinata is the last person who deserves something like that to happen to."

I'm nearly blown away by the long response. After a while, I shrug, "You never know, she could be that great thing you're looking for…"

Naruto stares at me, but he's not looking at me. He's zoned out and is completely lost. I raise my knees and rest my chin on them. Finally, Naruto asks, "What do you think of Shikamaru?"

"What do you mean?" My eyebrows scrunch up in confusion. I look at Naruto's serious face and realize what he's asking. I burst into laughter, "Oh my God, you can't be serious! Are you serious? He's like my blood brother! He's more than just a best friend. It's as platonic as something can be. Did you actually— You really— Wow!"

"Just wondering," Naruto shrugs. "Since I was the only one sharing my feelings. … What about Kiba?"

"Okay, he's the little brother I'm glad I never had," I joke. "Your turn. Sakura?"

"She's kind of crazy now."

"' _Now_ '? Where have you been for the last 10 years or so?"

Naruto shrugs, "She's just ridiculously violent, you know?"

"Oh, _I know_ ," we both burst into laughter.

Naruto yawns. I immediately move off of the sleeping bag and allow him to move in. Naruto clears his throat and timidly points to his head. "Can you run your hand through my hair?"

"Um, no? What the heck?" I ask, creeping away.

"Hey, you were the one who started it on that mission; I've come to like it."

"Get Hinata to do it."

"It's not that same."

"So she's done it?"

"She like touched it then cowered away. If it's so taboo to touch a guy's hair, I have no idea what possessed you to do so on that mission."

"You wanna know what's taboo?" I question with a raised brow. However, I don't bring up any more incidents and instead drag myself back to the sleeping bag with the deepest groan I've ever groaned. I slam my hand on his head roughly and ruffle his hair, then pull my hand away. "There, good?"

Naruto sighs, cuddling in deeper into the bag, "Great!"

I roll my eyes, "Loser."

We fall into a silence. Naruto's eyes droop to a close and his breathing steadies. I smile, watching his peaceful face. I slowly reach out and run my hand through his soft hair. Naruto responds by leaning his head closer. I continue the same motion until I myself feel like dropping like a fly right next to him. Standing up with my eyes half open, I wobble my way out of his tent and into my own. Even in my exhausted state, I imagine Shikamaru to be sitting on his sleeping bag waiting for me to return. However, I'm pleased to see him in a deep sleep, his hair disheveled and his right foot sticking out of the bottom, unzipped part of the sleeping back. Choji lay flat on his stomach, face pointing in the opposite direction of me.

Tiptoeing, I return to my spot in between the two. I wonder if all of this was just a dream… And with that, I fall under.

* * *

When I wake up, I'm alone in my tent, indicating that I must have slept in late. I poke my head out of the entrance and see the sun quite a ways up, but it's still clearly morning. I turn my head the other way to see the boys sitting around the fire, waiting for the girls to finish making sushi. Wow, the girls must have been awake for a while… Why didn't they ask for my help?

"Holy crap, it's a real ghost!" Kiba shouts, spotting me. Choji shakes his head at Kiba disapprovingly, Naruto jumps at the words, and Shikamaru even smiles.

"Haha, you're so funny." I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I drag myself out of the tent, groaning as I follow-up with a few stretches. I head back into my tent to change and run a brush through my hair. When I'm done, I grab a few things to help me wash up. Hoping to finish quick, I head to the stream that's nearby to wash my face and mouth. I feel ready for the day, and return to the campsite. The girls wave me over, but I head to the boys first. Crossing my arms and tapping my foot, I ask, "Why aren't you guys helping?"

"I don't know how to make sushi," They say in unison.

I roll my eyes, "I'll gonna have to teach you guys when we get back. If you want to make a girl happy, you have to know how to cook."

The girls seem relieved to have an extra pair of hands to help, even if they were nearly finished. I pout, "You guys should have woken me up to help."

"We thought you could use some rest," Hinata says with an encouraging smile.

"You really do love your beauty sleep," Sakura mutters.

"What was that, Billboard Brow?"

"Nothing, Ino-Pig."

Sakura and I laugh at our squabbling, now those words aren't even insults. There's a slight breeze, reminding me that autumn is close. Autumn is my second favourite season, after spring, so I feel extremely excited observing the trees that are beginning to change colour. When the sushi is finished, we sit around the circle and plan for the day.

"Can we sleep?" Shikamaru asks.

Tenten crosses her arms and glares at him, "We didn't come here to sleep, Shikamaru."

"How about we go for a hike?" Naruto suggests.

"Not bad…" Sakura says, tapping her chin.

"We could just have people do whatever they want today," Kiba says. "So Shikamaru can sleep, Naruto and the girls can go hiking, and Choji and I can go do our own things."

I raise a brow, "What exactly do you plan to do, Inuzuka?"

Kiba smirks, "Whatever I feel. Maybe I'll go roll around in the fields, which by the way, the flowers are in perfect bloom. Maybe I wanna go check them out before they wither and die. Or maybe I can go canoeing."

I perk up, "Wait, what about those fields?"

"The flowers? You wanna go check them out?"

"Well, yeah! Maybe I can take a few home to my dad."

"That sounds fun," Sakura says, "I'll come too!"

"Yeah!" Tenten exclaims.

"What about hiking?" Naruto asks.

Tenten, Sakura and I look at each other, then at Hinata. Tenten smiles, "I'm sure the two of you will be fine on your own. Unless you want to join us?"

Hinata looks to Naruto, waiting for his answer. Naruto scratches the back of his neck and shrugs, "No, we'll be okay on our own."

I look down at my sushi, overly focused on it as I eat. When everyone is ready to go their separate ways, the sun is directly above us. After noticing the shortness of our supplies, Tenten announces that tomorrow morning we'll be on our way home. The announcement is first met with protest, since yesterday had been so much fun, but it settled when the reality hit that we need to be back in the village as soon as possible in case we were needed on any missions. Plus, I have my duties in the shop I can't forego, same with Sakura and the hospital.

So as Sakura, Tenten, Kiba and I head towards the fields, we try to take in everything in order to make the most of this trip before we have to say goodbye. Choji stays back with Shikamaru, and Naruto and Hinata head towards the hills on the opposite direction of the fields. I sigh, after this trip, I'm gonna have to give up on the orange-haired idiot. I've decided to do so in order to allow myself to finally move on and for Hinata and him to be happy, because I know they can be if there weren't obstacles—like me—in the way.

Kiba leads the three of us down a trail. Along the way to our destination, I continue to step on the back of Kiba's shoes, amusing the girls. Soon, Kiba falls back, walking next to me. He trips me, and I shriek as I fall onto the ground. I groan, sitting up to look at my scratched hands and knees. Kiba laughs as I glare at him. Tenten decides it's better we stand on the opposite ends of the path until we reach our destination.

Not long after, we come across a field with a variety of colours. There are multiple different kinds of flowers, with some being quite rare for our part of the country. I stare in awe, moving about in wonder. Sakura and Tenten take a liking to them as well, while Kiba walks around with his hands laced at the back of his head. I grab a variety of flowers, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the scents each flower gave off. When I feel satisfied with my selection, I approach the other three, who are examining the lilacs.

"How can you guys stand all of these bugs?!" Sakura exclaims with a shiver.

"I'm on the same team as Shino," Kiba simply states.

"And you're just being a baby," Tenten says to Sakura.

"If being a baby means not wanting exotic little vermins to suck my blood or do worse things to me, then yeah, I'm a baby."

"Hey guys," I interrupt, "are you almost finished? I've got everything I need."

"Wow, that's a lot of flowers," Kiba states, taking a whiff of my mock-bouquet.

"Yeah, I wanted to take these home to my dad. Especially these magnolias, they're his favourite."

Tenten grins, "Awe, Ino, you're so cute."

"Cute?" I ask with a raised brow.

"Yeah! I find it so cute when people talk about their passions," Tenten explains.

I shake my head, making a note to myself to never talk about flowers around Tenten again. We begin to head back, all the while discussing each person's passions and when they seem 'cute' to Tenten. We're close to the campsite with Choji appears, running straight towards us.

"Hey, what's Choji doing?" Kiba asks before calling out to my team mate. "Oi, Choji!"

Choji seems a bit breathless as he reaches us. The look on his face causes the rest of us to become concerned. When he catches his breath, he shouts, "Naruto's been injured!"

* * *

 **A/N:** _REVIEW! :) Reviews keep me motivated to write and update faster!_


	10. Camping: Change of Hearts

"What do you mean he's injured?!" I exclaim, feeling my stomach drop. The flowers fall at my sides and each one of us tenses before we all take off in a mutual consensus that we need to get back as soon as possible. None of us make any snarky remarks, we run together in silence.

Sakura, the medic nin, asks Choji while running, "What are his injuries? Do you know?"

"He lost his footing and tumbled down the, I don't know, hill? Mountain?" Choji explains. "But anyway, the point is that he broke his left ankle and sprained his right elbow."

Sakura nods, a wave of relief washing over her and the rest of the group. "Good, then it's not too serious. I'll perform some emergency treatment, but I can't heal him completely. He'll have to wait until we get back into the village."

For some reason, I'm not relieved just yet. My throat feels as though it's clamped shut. As we approach the campsite, I can see Naruto sitting on a log with his legs outstretched. Shikamaru is wrapping a makeshift sling on Naruto while Hinata sits beside him, a concerned look on her face and a comforting hand on his shoulder. I slow to a stop when we reach the campsite, falling behind as the rest of them rush to Naruto's side.

Shikamaru moves out of the way, allowing Sakura to perform her standard medical questions before tending to his injuries. Naruto just grins and tells everyone he's fine earning him a hard look from Sakura, shutting him up.

I can't explain why, but I start crying. The water pools at my eyes and I feel sobs itching their way through my throat. I try to suppress them, but it still makes its strangled way out my throat. Naruto turns to me, saying, "Ino?"

I turn around and run off. My emotions are getting the best of me, I know, and I know that my friends are going to wonder what's going on (I hear Kiba ask, "What's gotten into her?") but I just need to clear my head. I run back in the direction we came from a moment ago. I don't stop running. My chest heaves and I feel as though my legs will give out at any moment, but I don't stop, not until I reach the field of flowers. Then I let it out.

The scent of the flowers intoxicates me, but I don't care, falling onto my knees within the sea of colour. What _is_ my problem? I have no idea. But my eyes swell as water nearly gushes out of them and I sob my ugly sobs out. It takes me a few minutes, but a part of my brain seems to click on, telling me to pull myself together.

"I'm such a freak," I say to no one. Lifting myself up, I take a look around me. There are crinkled flowers at my feet, the ones that I crushed when I fell onto my knees. I don't bother to wipe my tear-streaked face. I just shake my head and laugh. I _laugh_. I'm crazy.

In the distance I can spot the flowers I dropped a moment ago and go to pick them up. I hear footsteps approaching behind me, so I hastily rub off the dried tears off my face and stand up, my makeshift bouquet back in my hand. Turning around, I'm surprised to see Tenten approaching me. I expected maybe Sakura or Shikamaru, but regardless, I expect the same words from all of them.

Tenten doesn't have a concerned look on her face though, she has an understanding one. My eyes almost well up again at the warmth in her expression. She reaches me and places a tentative hand on my shoulder, giving me a small smile.

"Do you want to talk?" she asks.

"About what?" I ask. My voice sounds as though I hadn't used it in a few years, but it works.

Tenten shrugs, "Whatever you want." She looks at the flowers in my hand and says, "Maybe you can talk about flowers."

I scoff but smile anyway. "I came back for these," I use as an excuse, "they're for my dad. I didn't want to go through that trouble and then come back empty handed. I mean, Naruto isn't in a fatal condition, so I thought I might as well get them before it got dark, you know?"

Tenten nods, choosing to believe me even though I can see the doubt in her eyes. Instead of addressing it, she asks, "Ino, what do you want to do?"

I'm taken aback by the question. I definitely wasn't expecting this one.

"Do with what?" I ask stupidly.

"I mean, what do you want to do right now? Or when we go home?" Tenten explain. She places a hand on my back and the other on my arm as she guides me back on the trail, towards the campsite. "Do you want to go to a coffee shop? Dance in the moonlight? Play in the rain? Work at the shop?"

I blink at the options, "They all sound nice…"

Tenten smiles again, "Then I think you should do them."

"Okay, Tenten, I seriously don't understand the words coming out of your mouth right now."

"Listen, Ino," Tenten says, forcing me to stare into her eyes as we continue walking. She continues, "You should be happy. So go do the things you want to do and stop denying yourself those little instances of happiness. I don't think of you as a depressed person, but I know you're not happy."

"I am happy!" I argue, "I love being with all of you, my friends. I love swimming with you guys, cloud watching and napping with Shikamaru, bantering with Kiba, Sakura, and Naruto, eating with Choji, shopping with you, talking with Hinata, I just love being with each and every one of you."

" _Yeah_ ," Tenten drags out the word. "But I know that you do these things because we love to do them. You eat ramen with Naruto, visit Sakura at the hospital, join Hinata on her strolls, visit restaurants with Choji, cloud watch with Shikamaru, shop with me, and I don't know, I guess Kiba just loves bantering, but you do that with him too because it's what we love and what makes us happy. You should do things for yourself too."

"You guys come visit me at the shop," I point out, "and that's something I love to do."

Tenten scrunches her eyebrows in doubt, "but that's work. You're forced to do it, regardless of whether you love it or not."

I sigh, there's just no winning here. And yet… Tenten has a point. I smile at her gratefully upon this realization. "I'm not as unhappy as you think, but if it'll put your mind to ease, then I'll go do things on my own that I enjoy."

Tenten grins and pulls me in tight in a sort-of hug. I protest, claiming she'll wreck my bouquet and she immediately pulls back, but her grin is broad enough to show her joy at the words.

We return to the campsite when the sun begins to go down. I pout at the thought of this trip already ending, but at the same time, I don't think tomorrow morning is early enough time for us to leave. I hear laughter coming out of the girls' tent so I peek in to see everyone squished in there, playing a game of cards.

"Oh, Ino, hey!" Sakura greets, scootching over to give me room. "Wanna come join us?"

I don't know whether or not I should refuse, but I choose to come inside anyway. Tenten follows after me. For a while, I watch as the rest of them finish their game, no one pointing out my weird behaviour. In fact, they casually get me to join in on the conversation. For this, I'm grateful, but I have no idea how they could overlook my weird actions. Maybe it's better to just leave it at that.

Naruto accuses Kiba of cheating, which he denies. Naruto's left leg is outstretched to the side, forcing him to have to slightly twist his body in order to be able to play. With his right arm in a sling made out of one of Shikamaru's shirts, he has to play one-handed. Naruto asks me to verify if Kiba is in fact a cheater since I'm sitting next to Kiba and can peek at his cards. I shake my head, denying the accusation, then high-five Kiba behind his back. Naruto squints his eyes at us with suspicion, but we both shrug innocently.

When the round is over and I'm able to join the game, I warn Kiba that I'm not gonna go easy on him. He scoffs at the challenge but seems amused by the competition. We play for hours, only stopping to eat, then returning back to our games. The night is filled with laughter, allowing me to forget everything else and live in this moment.

When it gets late, Sakura and Tenten shoo us out, telling us it's time for bed. Hinata is already dozing off, and Shikamaru is sleeping in the corner. I nudge him awake on my way out and we all give our farewells before entering our respective tents. I gather my bouquet and gloat to Kiba about beating him on multiple occasions, to which he scoffs and promises that the outcomes will be different next time, before entering his tent.

Before I enter my tent, I look over towards Naruto's tent. Sakura had helped him into it and volunteered to watch over him in the night to make sure he doesn't injure himself further by sleeping on one of his injuries in an awkward position. With a sigh, I turn back towards my own tent, trying to to quell my worries with the comforting thought that Sakura is the best possible person to look after him.

* * *

"Rise and shine, Princess!" Kiba hollers as he smuggles me with a pillow. I groan and bury my face in my hands. When he's satisfied at successfully waking me, Kiba jumps up and continues to create a ruckus to wake everyone up. I practically crawl out of the tent to observe with squinted eyes—to my annoyance—that the sun has not made its complete way up yet. Sakura doesn't seem to mind, seeing as she's throwing bags filled with her stuff out of her tent. She's probably accustomed to short hours of sleep and early morning wake-up calls. How that girl is still alive is beyond my comprehension. Hinata rubs her eyes drowsily while Tenten rolls up sleeping bags.

I nudge Shikamaru's leg to wake him, but he simply groans, rises from his spot, and drags his feet out of the tent towards a tree a few feet away. In an instant, Shika is unconscious with his back against the tree and his arms and legs crossed before him. I shake my head but in retrospect, I'm in no position to judge, seeing as how I can barely keep my eyes open.

Choji enters the tent just after I have changed out of my pajamas and tied my hair back. He offers me rice with a few vegetables and fish to eat for breakfast. The gesture makes me grin and accept the food gratefully. While eating my breakfast, I exit my tent to inspect the rest of the group. Everyone, save for Shika and Naruto, are sitting by the fire, warming themselves up as they eat. Jerking my chin towards Naruto's tent, I ask, "Did anyone wake up the dork?"

"No, we thought he should rest up a bit more," Sakura comments, and from her tone I can hear the tiredness of it. I guess she was pretty tired too, but refused to show it. Afterall, she stayed up all night watching over Naruto. Sakura continues in the same tired voice, "Resting is the best thing he can do for his injuries at the moment. But I guess someone should wake him up."

Kiba jumps off his seat, volunteering, "I'll do it!"

My eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets and I can't help questioning his excitement this morning. "What's gotten into you today?! I've never seen you at dawn, but I doubt you're always this energetic."

Kiba grins, "I'm just excited to go home. Akamaru must be missing me a lot back there, he has nothing to do without me."

I smile, knowing for a fact that Kiba is the one feeling his companion's absence. Kiba walks towards Naruto's tent with a spring in his steps. His yelling is loud enough that he might as well have been screaming it from the hills, Naruto would have been able to hear it from that far away. There's a lot of yelling going on and the sound of struggling with a few curses, all coming from Naruto as he warns Kiba to stay away from his injuries.

Eventually, Kiba comes out scowling, then helps Naruto make his way to the circle around the fire. Naruto's hair is disheveled, giving me an urge to run my hand through it and fix it up, but I bite my lip and suppress this urge. He waves lazily, greeting the group with a simple, "Yo."

"How was your sleep?" I question Naruto after we've all greeted him and Kiba helps him sit down between me and Sakura. "Did you give Sakura trouble?"

Naruto scoffs, "I'm an angel."

"Of hell," Sakura adds.

"That doesn't even make any sense." Naruto states, angling his body towards the pinkette.

"It makes complete sense to those who have witnessed it, and since I have, I am a firm believer that angels of hell exist." Sakura argues, crossing her arms.

The two teammates continue to bicker until Tenten breaks them apart by offering Naruto food. This shuts him up until he's finished eating, then they're back at it. My eyes catch Hinata's, and although she doesn't have the same look of annoyance as I do, she gives me a look of understanding. She says, "Naruto, would you like some help packing your bags?"

Hinata's voice is so gentle compared to the bickering voices between Naruto and Sakura—which are continually rising in volume—that I'm sure he doesn't hear her request. But I guess this is Naruto, and his hearing is the best I've ever known. To prove it, he breaks away from the banter to respond with a cheeky grin, "Thanks Hinata, but Sakura helped me with them last night."

"Oh, okay," Hinata says with a disappointed smile.

Naruto immediately says, "But my tent is gonna be a problem! So, um, if you're not busy, do you think you can help me with that?"

"Baka," I insult under my breath. Of course, with his super-ears, Naruto hears me and questions my insult. I roll my eyes, "Nevermind."

Placing my half-eaten plate down, I excuse myself to go pack my own bags. As I do so, I shove my things into my bag with unnecessary force. My thoughts wander and I can't help wondering what could have happened last night that made Sakura and Naruto so buddy-buddy. Bickering between our friend group just proves the strength of the friendship in a way only understandable by us, therefore confusing me on Sakura and Naruto's sudden changes in attitude. Of course, they're teammates and have been friends for a long time, but Sakura seemed to have a stone-heart towards him. I just don't understand it.

I nearly stomp out of the tent and glance over to the side to see Hinata and Naruto working their way through packing up his tent. It seems difficult for Naruto, but he looks as though he's trying as best as he can to make do with what he's got. I don't even realize I'm sulking until a yawning Shikamaru comments, "If anyone saw that look on your face for even just a tenth of a second, they'd know you've fallen for the guy you keep calling 'idiot'."

Ignoring his comment, I ask in a forced cheerful voice, "Are you going to help me out with the tent?"

Shika groans but complies. Choji joins us and we finish just about the the same time as the others. We gather back around the middle of the campsite and Kiba asks, while pointing his thumb at Naruto, "So like, are we gonna have to take turns carrying this guy?"

Naruto rolls his eyes, "I can't exactly walk on my own, here."

"Well who told you to be so clumsy, then?" This comment earns Kiba glares from Tenten and Sakura; even Hinata fixes him a stern look. Kiba holds his hands up by his shoulders and says, "My bad. Geez, if looks could kill…"

Shikamaru volunteers to be Naruto's human crutch first without any complaints. I smile, thinking to myself, _Helping out a friend in need isn't so troublesome, is it, Shika? You're such a softy on the inside._ Shikamaru seems to read my mind, because he glares at me with no malice. He scoffs and turns away, but I catch his lips quirk up.

The eight of us begin our journey home with our bags flung over our shoulders and Kiba leading the pack. He's nearly bouncing with every step, and has to stop every now and then to call the rest of us to hurry up or he'll ditch us. Along the way, Shikamaru trades spots with Hinata and instead walks with Choji at the back. The two of them walk leisurely, somehow ending up at the back. Sakura walks alongside Naruto and Hinata, as extra support in case they needed it, although Hinata insists she will be fine for the whole trip back.

For a while I stare at their backs, watching the three of them as they joke and converse. I can't help feeling a pang in my chest, as though my insides were being turned. This trip has ended up to be extremely eventful and my mind can't stop racing as I think of all the events. Maybe I'm overthinking some things, but this whirlwind trip and my whirlwind emotions are not a good mixture, thus resulting to my confused state.

I shake my head in an attempt to clear it. I promised myself I would give up on Naruto as soon as the trip was over, and from my understanding, the trip is over. Instead, I should be looking forward to doing the things I love on my own, just as Tenten had suggested. As if on queue, Tenten strolls up next to me, linking our arms and asking me what I plan to do when I get home.

"Go sleep in my comfy bed that I take for granted," I answer. Tenten rolls her eyes but laughs, admitting she'll be doing the same. I know she expected an answer of either working at the shop, or rolling down a field or something else that's just as wild, but I honestly don't know what type of activity—like the ones she suggested—I'll do first. So instead, I say, "I'm just gonna roll with the punches, I think. So if there's an opportunity to do something, I'll try to take it."

Tenten seems pleased with my words and says, "Hey, if you need ideas, I can give you some. Maybe if you try some new things, you'll be surprised to find how much you like it. Like for me, when I started to learn how to cook, I thought I'd never stop doing it. Heck, I thought maybe I'd open up a café or restaurant. It's that much fun for me."

I scoff, "Excuse me, but maybe if you guys woke me up to help you out with the cooking, you'd know I'm one fantastic chef."

Tenten raises a brow, "A little cocky, now, are we?"

We laugh and continue with our conversation. I didn't even realize we passed Naruto, Hinata and Sakura until I hear them calling out to us to wait up. It almost shocks me to realize that, because for once this whole trip, I wasn't aware of Naruto's presence. This feeling I want to get used to, and the thought of finally being able to take that weight off my shoulders excites me.

Since Tenten and I made it quite a ways ahead, we fall in line with Kiba. He joins in on our conversation once Tenten explains to him the situation of me never doing things on my own. Kiba nods his head tentatively then agrees, "Hey, I kinda wanna do that too!"

"Honestly, we should all probably get into the habit of doing things on our own that we just want to do without a care of what others will think of it," Tenten states with a passion that could challenge Lee's. She speaks the words in one breath, almost losing me, but I caught onto its meaning. She continues, "I mean, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, you know? Self-improvement goes such a long way-"

"Tenten," Kiba cuts her off, "I think you've been spending a ridiculous amount of time with Lee. I understand you're teammates, but seriously? You're turning into him."

"And what's wrong with Lee, Inuzuka?" Tenten questions warningly.

"Nothing's wrong with him per-say, he's just… a little—actually, more than a little—over the top."

"Hmm," I hum in understanding. Turning to Tenten, I say, "He's kind of got a point."

Tenten rolls her eyes, "Whatever, I don't care. When you actually listen to what Lee has to say, it makes sense and I completely agree with him on it."

"I'll make sure to invite him to our next inspirational conversation," I say.

"I never realized it until now, but wow, we really do pick up a lot of habits from our teammates," Tenten comments.

"I guess that's just how things work out," Kiba suggests. I turn to Kiba and just stare at him, causing him to ask, "What is it? Is something on my face?"

"I'm just wondering if you've ever had a crush on anyone before, Inuzuka." I respond.

Kiba's eyebrows scrunch up in mild confusion with a dash of disgust, "Why would you be wondering that?"

"I don't know, the thought came to me and I'm surious."

Tenten perks up and pesters Kiba to fess up his secrets. Kiba refuses to do so, however, Tenten and I finally manage to force it out of him.

"Alright, fine!" Kiba says with an annoyed sigh. He goes back to his free-spirited ways and says, "I don't waste my time with things like that, but I'm a man who sometimes desires companionship just as any other man—"

"Just get to the good stuff," I say impatiently, biting back my tongue from commenting how the thought of Kiba having desires disgusts me. Of course, it doesn't actually, but it's in our nature to bug one another.

"Okay, geez, no need to be in such a rush," Kiba says before continuing. "Anyway, I guess I always thought the idea of having that companionship would be nice, but I never thought it was necessary or made it my priority. I did, however, have an interest in a girl—and I will NOT tell you who or give ANY hints what-so-ever so don't even think about getting it out of me—but I don't think it'll work out, so I'm over it."

I raise a brow and turn to Tenten, whose expression reflects mine. She asks, "How long have you liked—I mean, 'showed an interest' toward her for?"

Kiba shrugs and takes a deep breath as he thinks. "I don't know... Three years, maybe?"

"Three years?!" I exclaim. "And you're 'over it'? How?!"

Kiba growls, "Well if there's no chance, then what's the point? I refuse to waste any more of my time. Plus, I'm content with things being the way they are."

I sigh, I wish I had that sort of attitude. But it all makes, really. I guess in the end it doesn't matter how long you've cared for someone, if you know that in the end you won't end up with that person, why waste any further time.

"Can you guys not tell anyone what we just talked about?" Kiba asks almost shyly. "I don't talk about these things so this is the first time I've shared that. If anyone else finds out about this, I don't know what I'd do. I just know neither of you will like it one bit."

Tenten and I agree not to do so just as the village gates come into view. I mentally thank Tenten and Kiba for this talk. I also make a mental note to stop acting so weird, and I know publicly thanking them will confuse them and qualifies as weird. They just won't be able to understand how much they've helped me with this talk. I feel slightly guilty for not telling them—especially Tenten—about my true feelings and why I'm acting so weird. But the less people who know about it, the easier it will be to pretend like it never happened, right? Hopefully that's the case.

We enter the gates and I immediately throw down my bag and lie on it with a heavy sigh. I hadn't even noticed its weight until that very moment. Tenten drops her bag as well and takes a seat on top of it, pulls out a water bottle, and chugs its contents down. Kiba seems to contemplate whether to rest with us or to head straight home to Akamaru. Since he'd just spent the last few days with us, it doesn't take him long to decide. He immediately drops Naruto's bags next to ours and takes off towards his home—not before saying goodbye, however.

"What a guy," I call after him as Tenten and I watch his retreating back as he literally dashes home with the use of some chakra. We both shake our heads and I continue, "I just can't imagine him liking someone. That's so weird."

"Well, even though we question it sometimes, I guess this just proves that Kiba is, in fact, a human." Tenten remarks, causing us to erupt in laughter.

"I feel like we're missing out," I hear Sakura say. I turn my head to see the rest of the group entering the gates.

Naruto's got his good arm—the left one—slung around Sakura's shoulder who seemingly switched places with Hinata. I wipe away the tears that came from laughing so hard and greet them, "Oh hey, you guys finally made it."

"Barely," Sakura jokes. She helps Naruto take a seat on one of the bags Kiba discarded. She sighs, "That was a long trip, and we didn't really stop to rest often enough. I hope your injuries haven't been strained…"

"I'm fine," Naruto assures. Every one of us give him with a stern look, knowing fully well that he is not fine, that it's just second-nature for him to put up a front and act as though he's okay. As we do so, Naruto gives in, "Okay, okay, I just need to rest up a bit."

"I'm taking you to the hospital," Sakura states. "We'll admit you and give you some medicine there."

Naruto gives Sakura a hard look, "Sakura, you barely slept a wink last night, if even that. You should rest."

Sakura rolls her eyes, "Don't be stupid, Naruto. Until you're safe in that hospital with enough drugs to knock you out for weeks, I won't rest. You know that."

Naruto sighs and turns to the whole group, "Sorry to cause all of you guys so much trouble. I appreciate all of you helping me out, though. Really." His eyes flicker towards Sakura before continuing, "It means a lot."

My eyes widen at that small ending piece. It lasted only a second, but I turn to Hinata and I'm sure she caught the look too, because her expression is sullen. I choose to not think further into it, taking notes from Kiba that I can control my feelings if I truly wanted to, and boy, I really want to.

I continue to watch as Sakura hoists Naruto up with her super-strength and they make their way towards the hospital. I shrug with my new, I-don't-care attitude and grab my bags, letting the group know I'm heading home for some sleep and a hot meal. My farewell is met with head-nods and waves. I give Hinata a final glance, but she seems to be preoccupied as she watches Sakura and Naruto walk away.

Turning away from the scene and heading home, I sigh in relief, relishing in this great feeling of not-caring. Although, deep down, I can still feel my heartbeat slightly quicken at the memory of Naruto glancing at Sakura in a way he hadn't done in a while. I force the memory away and decide to distract myself by thinking of some other activities I can get started on as soon as I am settled back at home.

Half of me is excited, half of me is tired. But I guess that's okay, because soon, all I'll be is happy.

I hope.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Hey guys! I've been working almost every day these past two weeks so writing has been difficult for me. Also, I hit a writer's block, but here's a new chapter! I'm having so much fun writing this. And can't you tell how much I've stirred the pot? /evil laughter/ ;) This chapter is pretty long, too, ehhehe._

 _By the way, sorry if some parts were boring, but I thought it would be nice to add a bit more character into Tenten and Sakura instead of having them just talk about boys boys boys all the time, you know? I just feel like there's a lot more potential with their characters than just that._

 _ **REVIEW** , you know the drill ;)_

 _Also, on the last chapter, I received such wonderful reviews… It makes me so happy to read such kind yet analytical reviews. I really am proud of improving my writing, and hope to continue to do better. Thank you all so much. Ugh, okay, I'm done. I just love you guys, though. Like a lot._

 _Okay bye!_


	11. Three's a Crowd

I hear the light pitter-patter on my roof before I'm even fully awake. A shiver crawls its way down my back, bringing to my attention the window I had left open, not expecting the weather to turn so gloomy. I pat my forehead to check for signs of illness but when I pass the test, I decide to leave my window open and instead snuggle up deeper into blankets. The cozy feeling of the multiple quilts encompassing me along with the rhythmic noise of the rain makes me feel as though I could sleep forever.

But of course, I don't live in a perfect world that would allow me to do that, so instead, I give myself a minute before deciding to roll off my bed in an ungraceful manner. I shut my window as fast as I can get to it, then take a moment to look out at the gloomy village. It's a good thing we came back before we could get caught in the rain, that would have turned out a mess.

I gasp in delight as I notice a few leaves on the trees turning into a golden colour, a reminder that autumn is approaching.

Okay, so today I plan on starting my goal of doing whatever I want, whenever I want to, just as Tenten instructed me to. I begin preparing for the day by planning what I'll do and what I'll wear. So, since it's raining, I'll do what she suggested and dance in the rain. Although, what if my neighbours see? I rub my forehead with the back of my hand and groan.

No, I have to do it. More for my own sanity than anything else.

I change into a pair of pants and a comfy sweater, foregoing my ninja gear due to this formidable weather. Throwing on a raincoat and some rubber boats, I make my way towards the backdoor of my house. Just as I pass the coat closet on my way out the door, I return and grab an umbrella before heading back out.

I gulp then take a deep breath, shutting my eyes and listening closely to the rain's own original beat. Clearing my throat, I decide it's now or never, and begin skipping. The skipping is awkward and I'm unsure of what to do with myself so I stop. I take another deep breath and say aloud, "Ino, you can do this."

Great, now I'm talking to myself.

I shake my head then go for it. With no music, it's hard to dance, but after a while of skipping, I slowly move the umbrella aside and turn my head up towards the grey sky, allowing droplets of water to make contact with my face. The refreshing feeling it gives me provides me the encouragement to change up my moves and I spin, jump, body roll, and do just about everything else to absolutely no music than the beat of the rain.

"Ino?" A voice startles me. I nearly jump out of my skin as I turn around to see Hinata, clad in similar rain weather clothing as me, standing by my fence, on her way to my front door, most likely.

"Uhh, I can explain," I say embarrassedly.

"No, no, no!" Hinata says, waving her hand in front of her, "You looked like you were having a lot of fun. I just came by to ask if you want to go to the hospital with me to visit Naruto?"

"Ohh," I drag the word, realizing I'd almost forgotten to do that. Scratching the back of my soaked hair—the umbrella long forgotten—I asked, "Do you think Naruto will mind if I gift him with one of the bouquets from my house? I don't really want to make a trip to the store today. Daddy's working, and if he sees me soaked, he's gonna be angry."

Hinata blinked a few times before answering, "I'm sure he won't mind. As long as the card is heart-felt."

"Oh, crap," I curse as I realize I don't have a letter for Naruto. I open my fence door and lead Hinata into the house through the back. I grab a nearby vase with some lilacs and a piece of blank white paper, fold it, then use a black marker to write ' _Get well soon!_ ^^ -Ino" and a cartoon monster on the front before sticking the card in between the flowers and returning to the doorway where Hinata stood waiting. I smile, "Okay, let's go!"

I lock the door on our way out and the two of us walk in silence, unsure of what to really say. The rain has stopped so the only noise is coming from the chirping birds. There's a slight tension between us that I'm not willing to admit to, but there's also nothing I can do to rid us of it. Every time I open my mouth to try and speak—at this point, I would even resort to talking about cheese, if necessary—but nothing will leave my mouth and I'm forced to shut it.

Hinata walks nervously, although after glancing at her one too many times, I feel as though her concerns or for another subject, not me. I stare at the ground and think of the possibilities that must be going through her head. Naruto's injury should turn out okay, but I can understand how she feels. Because even though he's okay, that fact that he was hurt to begin with, is upsetting enough on it's own. I guess she feels upset because she doesn't want Naruto to ever be hurt.

At least, that was why I was upset earlier.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little upset right now.

 _No Ino_ , I think, _You are in control of your own emotions._

"We're here," Hinata announces, pulling me out of my thoughts. I nod and we enter the building. After checking in with the front desk we're directed to Naruto's room which is on the second floor.

The nurse leading us turns around, saying, "He might seem a bit drowsy due to the medications. We advise you to speak slowly, calmly, and quietly. We'll also need you keep the visit short, your presence may overwhelm him."

Once she's done giving us instructions, she holds the door to Naruto's room open for us as we enter and closes it behind us. I walk in after Hinata, and wonder what has made her stop abruptly. Looking over her shoulder, I see Sakura sitting on a chair next to Naruto's bed, her head laying down on the edge and her right hand holding Naruto's left. Naruto is asleep as well, his left leg wrapped in a cast and his right arm in a sling.

I feel a sudden dull ache starting in my chest but quickly crush it down. I clear my throat gently, then move forward to place my gift on Naruto's nightstand, next to the other little boxes and gifts left by our friends. Choji bought him a teddy bear, Kiba gifted him with a deluxe package of pork ramen, Shikamaru left a book with a note that read, "Maybe now you'll have time to actually read. Hopefully not for long, though. Get well soon."

Tenten's gift was an orange jacket with a long note telling him she'll cook him one free meal when he gets better, then got Lee and Neji to sign the card as well. Lee's comment encouraged Naruto to get better using inspirational words, and Neji wrote a simple, "You'll be better in a week." I shake my head, not understanding that boy.

As I continue looking through the gifts, I realize Hinata hasn't moved from the entrance yet. I also notice for the first time that in her hands are bento boxes and some sort of jug with the aroma of chai tea wafting from it. She doesn't seem to know what she should do or where to be, or if she even belonged in this room. My body feels as though it melts as I recognize that feeling.

Her gift is going to go cold if something isn't done about it. Looking around, I see a cup filled with water on the edge of the night table. I shut my eyes to contemplate for a moment, but decide to push the cup off the night table before I can change my mind. The glass shatters at my feet with a loud clang, causing Naruto and Sakura to jerk awake, their hands slipping away from one another.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaim, rushing for the broom. "I was just trying to look at the gifts, I really didn't mean to wake you! Ugh, gosh, I'm the clumsiest person sometimes. What a mess. Honestly, my whole life is a mess."

I continue to rant as I sweep the shattered glass up and throw it into the garbage bin. Naruto squints at the bright lights, but slowly comes to, seeing Hinata standing in the doorway, unsure of herself. He says in a deep, groggy voice, "Hinata? What's in your hands?"

Hinata finally seems to have a mind, as she slowly approaches his bed and offers him a bento box. "I cooked you some breakfast. I-um, I know that you love ramen, but I-uh, I thought you should eat something healthy, since you're sick and all."

 _Hinata..._ She's fumbling for words, her stutter returning and her nerves very evident. Naruto also notices, because he doesn't look at her, possibly thinking it'll make her feel better if he acts as though he doesn't notice it, when in reality, that's the farthest from the truth. Sakura rises from the bedside and excuses herself to the washroom. I don't quite know where to go, so I stand in a corner, hoping to stay out of their way.

"Thank you," Naruto says, accepting the box. Hinata opens the jug to reveal the tea before pouring it into a cup she brought with her. I guess no one really knows what to say, and my guess is that no one knows what's going on.

What is going on? Naruto and Sakura seem awfully friendly, but Naruto has been trying to make things work with Hinata for a while now. How is he going to get himself out of this one?

"So, Naruto," I say, striking up the conversation. "How long are you going to need to wear that thing for?"

"Depends how long it takes to heal," Naruto answers. He scoots aside, allowing Hinata to take a seat at the foot of the bed. Filling his mouth with an eggroll, Naruto says with a full mouth, "They said it would take a few weeks, but I'm healing extraordinarily fast. It should take about a week. Damn Neji must be a psychic!"

"Ew, Naruto, don't speak with your mouth full!" I say with a hint of disgust.

To spite me, Naruto asks, "What?" with a mouth full of soup and rice.

I shake my head. How the heck is a guy like this so popular amongst us girls? Whatever, seeing this side of him makes things easier for me.

Then he smiles that goofy grin of his—which is such a cheap trick—and says, "Sorry Ino, I'm starving, and I'm no good at multi-tasking."

"Whatever, I'm gonna wait outside." I say, sensing that my presence may add to the awkwardness. Before exiting, however, I turn to give Naruto a final glance. He's watching me, too, and gives me a small smile. I clench my fist and try to smile back but I'm only able to raise my lips awkwardly. I clear my throat and leave the room, shutting the door behind me. I find a vacant chair down the hallway and bring it next to the door, waiting for Hinata.

After about five minutes, Sakura turns the corner and approaches me. I chew on my lip, unsure of what to say. However, I don't have to, because Sakura stops in front of my chair, crosses her arms and sighs, "I know what it looks like."

I look up at her and awkwardly bob my head, still unsure of what to say, so she continues without a response from me. She kneels down so we're at eye-level, "Ino, I told you how I could never love Naruto in that way, right? Well, I truly did mean it when I said it. But now… I don't know."

"I guess it took Naruto getting hurt to open your eyes to how much he means to you," I say, my voice sounding vacant and tired. I scoff, "Maybe he should have tried this tactic sooner."

"Ino," Sakura says in a warning voice, "This injury is miniscule compared to injuries Naruto has suffered in the past. It's just… I don't know, the timing…"

"Can you please explain what's been happening?" I intervene, feeling myself grow more confused by the second.

Sakura clears her throat, most likely preparing to tell me a long story, and continues, "I told you how I felt about Naruto, but, recently I've come to realize how blinded I've been. During Naruto's absence, the only thing on my mind was Sasuke. I didn't feel anything towards Naruto, and was relieved when we finally got things going between him and Hinata. I thought he was finally over me, too. But… Naruto and I spent that last night at camp talking. We talked a lot. More than we ever really had, it felt like. But I guess that's because we were having serious conversations, ones we don't usually speak about.

"It really opened my eyes… I started to feel connected to him, if that makes sense. Like I want to protect him. I'm not saying I'm in love with him, but part of me regrets ever setting him up with Hinata…"

I force my face to smile, although my eyes don't match my lips. I place a hand on her shoulder comfortingly and say, "I understand." _More than you'll ever know._

Sakura scoffs, "You don't have to say that."

I clench my jaw and ignore her comment, then continue, "Look, it's not a crime to love someone—or I guess, feel an attraction towards someone. Even after rejecting the guy countless times, it's okay. I just feel worried that maybe, and don't take this the wrong way, but you miss the attention. Not because you're an attention-seeker, but because it may have given you some reassurance that you're lovable. That you're attractive and mean a lot to someone."

Sakura rolls her eyes, "I hate your good advice. The honesty in it hurts."

I smile, then add, "You may regret setting him up with Hinata, but you did the right thing. It would be selfish to keep him all to yourself. Now he's able to make that decision on his own."

"I mean," Sakura interjects, "it's not like I completely regret it. Hinata is a dear friend, and she's finally able to come clean about her feelings. I feel sorry to her most of all, because now I feel like I'm trying to take something that's hers." She adds in a soft whisper, "Something that was once mine."

 _Someone I wish was mine._

The instinctive thought gets pushed to the back of my head and I focus on Sakura. "I understand, Hinata is a victim. She'll be hurt by this, but you must understand Hinata's feelings as well. She's the kind of girl who would give up anything for others, even if it was her happiness she'd have to give up. Therefore, you shouldn't let her give up on Naruto, but at the same time, don't stop yourself because of her. As I said, it's up to Naruto to decide."

The familiar chest aches return as I think about my own advice. Why had I not followed it myself? Maybe I just understand that I have no chance, and there's no point in bothering. Especially not with two of my best friends in the same boat.

Sakura smiles gratefully which I know means she's extremely thankful for this advice. Perhaps she needed to hear them in order to feel better about her actions, I will never know. I just hope that no one comes out hurt in all of this, that everyone can be happy and we can all handle this situation maturely.

"I'm gonna head home," Sakura announces, rising from her crouch. "Now that Hinata is here, I think I can go rest up a bit, do some chores, and then come back for a visit." She smiles at the door, and turns to go without saying bye to Naruto. Before turning the corner, she calls out to me, "If you can, can you please tell Hinata about this? Let her know that I'll come back later in the evening and we can talk more, I just don't think I can be the one to bring it up."

The door to Naruto's room opens right after she's gone, as though it was waiting for her to leave, which I know is not the case, but still ironic. Hinata steps out with an unreadable expression on her face. I jump off my chair and am about to tell her about the Sakura situation, when she beats me to it, asking me to stay with Naruto while she tells a nurse that he'd like some food. Preferably pork ramen, since Kiba didn't buy the right kind. Then she's gone and I'm left stumped.

Slowly, I push the door open and enter Naruto's room. He's sitting up, with a solemn expression on his face. When he sees me, however, he smiles bright. "Ino? I feel like I haven't seen you in years."

I nod in agreement, and approach the bed he's lying on. I run my hand on the singular mattress, and cluck my tongue at its stiffness. "How can you sleep on this thing?"

"Easy, I lie down and shut my eyes, think of things that I love, and then bam! I'm asleep." Naruto answers cheekily.

I shove his left arm—the good one—and say, "Definitely not as comfortable as the one in that hotel in the fire village, right?"

"Oh, you have no idea." Naruto replies, an uncomfortable look on his face to express the difference between the two. I feel a smile push its way onto my face, despite my resistance. Seeing it causes Naruto to grin a genuine one—something I haven't seen in awhile, and must admit that I miss. It's gone as soon as it appears and Naruto runs a hand through his hair, "Boy, I miss this."

My eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, "Miss what?"

"Miss the easiness." Naruto replies simply. My confused expression must have scrunched up into further confusion because he explains, "With you, conversation is easy, and I forget about—other things."

There's a small pause between about and other, and I don't let him get away with it. I feign ignorance, "Uh-oh, trouble in paradise?" I prop myself onto the edge of his bed.

Naruto sighs, "You women are so complicated, you know that? For some reason, you expect all guys to be mind readers, but sometimes I truly believe you speak a different language."

"Hey, guys aren't much better," I say defensively.

"But they are," Naruto argues, "Women just think too much."

I shake my head, "What's with this new opinion about us women, huh?"

Naruto looks down at his broken left leg and the room is filled with silence. I don't push him for an answer because I don't feel like it's my place to know. Instead, I dangle my legs off the side of the bed and look around the bland room. There really isn't much going on in here. No wonder people believe hospitals are depressing.

"Do you think…" Naruto starts. I turn to him and see him looking at me with a hard look so serious that it shocks me. He continues, "Do you think that it's possible to be in love with two people?"

I feel time stop in that moment. To me it feels as though we're not moving an inch, our chests don't rise to fill itself with air, and not even a stray hair on my head moves. Then I feel my heart catch in my throat as I realize he's in love with both Hinata and Sakura, and curse myself for even having that glimmer of hope that I could have been a possibility. I turn away from his hard gaze, feeling my eyes sting, but resisting the water threatening to make its course out of my eyes as hard as I possibly can. I bite my lip down hard.

By my reaction, Naruto assumes my answer and says, "I know, you probably don't think so. I know it's bad, but I honestly don't know what to do anymore. Sakura… She's a huge part of my past, and it's not like I can forget about her that easily, you know? And Hinata… I can't brush her aside either. I know you're really close with both of them, so it's probably uncomfortable for you to hear as a friend, but… I can't help the feelings, no matter how confusing they are."

I press my lips together, still refusing to look at him. I'm grateful that my tears have been suppressed just as Hinata knocks gently and enters the room. I spring off the bed and rush to leave, saying quickly that I have work at the flower shop and I'm running late. Hinata catches my wrist as I'm halfway through the door, letting Naruto know that she'll walk me out, hands him his pork ramen, then shuts his door behind us on our way out.

Once we're a safe distance away from the door, Hinata turns to me and says, "Ino, I fear we should not have started this. I should never have confessed. I've put everyone in an awkward position."

"What? No! Nothing's your fault!" I state.

"Ino, it's like there is an awkward disease spreading and I am in the center of it. Naruto feels obliged to make me comfortable, but all of his attempts have failed, and it doesn't feel right. Sakura hasn't looked me in the eyes since Naruto got injured and she spent the night looking after him. And you…" I catch my breath, and she seems to gather her thoughts before continuing, "I'm sorry for acknowledging your feelings and then pretending I hadn't. It's just… hard. I believe you understand how I feel."

I quit chewing my lip to say, "Don't worry about me, honestly. What you thought I felt for Naruto—you were wrong. At best, it was an attraction because he's grown up so nicely, plus there isn't anyone else around here to have an attraction towards. I just need to clear that up before you can think it a bigger deal than it is."

I speak in a dry tone, hoping to come off as serious and honest. It seems to work, as Hinata tilts her head and asks, "Really?"

"One hundred percent! How could I ever fall for that dweeb?" I ask, laughing at the 'absurdity' and end up overdoing it, having to hold my stomach from the cramps coming from the forced laughter. Hinata shakes her head but seems to be falling for it, so I continue, "Honestly, he's a good guy, but I'm way out of his league. Can we just pretend this never happened? Because it could look pretty bad for me."

Hinata scoffs gently, a look of slight relief crossing her face. That's one issue she can stop worrying about. I'm glad I'm able to give her that, but I still have to become the messenger for Sakura's whims. I sigh before letting Hinata know about the pinkette and my conversation.

Hinata nods her head along and when I'm done, says, "Ino, I know you just want Sakura, Naruto and me to be happy, but it's just too hard walking into a situation where there is a 50/50 chance your heart can be broken. For me, I waited a long time to experience this kind of thing with Naruto, but he's spent such a long time caring for Sakura. I can't help feeling as though my chance in this is very slim."

"Wow, Kiba must have rubbed off on you," I say. "He's all about 'being in control of your own emotions' and 'staying cautious when it comes to love', that's probably why you have your doubts."

"Maybe," Hinata shrugs.

"You'll never know how Naruto truly feels if you don't go through with it." I state. "You could end up heartbroken, sure, but there's also a chance you could be with the man you've loved for so long. I think that's a chance that's promising enough to take."

We reach the front door to the hospital and Hinata turns to me with a grin, "Ino, I hope that one day you'll find happiness as well—perhaps you deserve it the most."

I shake my head, flustered by her compliment and bid her farewell. As I walk away, I feel something urging me to turn back around, so I do. I look up at the second floor to see a curtain being hastily drawn closed. I map the hospital in my mind and swear it's Naruto's window I'm staring at. I shake my head and turn back around, making my way to the flower shop with a heavy heart.

I spend the rest of the day arranging flowers with an absentmind, unsure of what to do. I feel dejected, and part of me fears that I'll never be able to find that happiness Hinata wished upon me. That hurts. The day replays in my mind over and over again, and I barely notice the customers coming in, paying for their flowers, then going out.

"Hey, are you even listening?" A voice asks as a hand is waved between my face and the flowers my eyes are fixed on. I look up out of my trance to see Kiba looking a little irritated but more concerned.

"What?" I ask.

"Tch," Kiba shakes his head, placing his palms on the counter and leaning on it. "I said, my mom's birthday is tomorrow, do you have something she might like?"

I roll my eyes, "How would I know? She's your mom."

"You're the expert, aren't you?" Kiba questions. I glare at him before sighing and leading him around the shop, finally picking out some lavenders and tulips. I place a few inside an elegant vase and tie it with a blue bow. Kiba scrunches his eyebrows and says, "That's an odd pairing. I think you've lost your skill—if you had any to begin with."

I know he can sense my mood and is trying to turn the situation light, the way he usually does, but I can't play along. I ask, "Do you think it's possible to love two people at once?"

Kiba is taken aback by my question but recomposes himself. "Honey, you're asking the wrong person. I'll take the bouquet."

"What do you do when you can't get over someone?" I follow-up with my next question. Before he can answer, I add, "I know it's easy for you, but I can't do it like you. I tried, but I can't. I feel like I'm over him, but then I see him, and I talk to him, and then everything hurts. I can't stop thinking about him afterwards. I hate it, Kiba, I hate it so much I feel like I'm dying!"

"Whoa," Kiba takes a step back. I've stopped to catch my breath so he takes this opportunity to clamp a hand over my mouth to shut it. I try to lick and bite his rough and salty hand to get him to take it off me but he doesn't budge. He says, "You're throwing a lot at me right now, just take a breather." When I've calmed down, Kiba removes his hand and scratches his forehead. "My sister once had a similar situation, a long time ago. She got over the guy by liking a new guy. And then when that didn't work out, she just kind of grew out of it. I have no idea what you can do, but the only other methods I know of are to move onto another guy, or to just let the feelings subside on their own."

I shake my head, "Kiba, I don't think I can do either—"

"It might feel like that right now, but trust me, it won't after a while. Seriously, time really does heal. If you're able to accept your situation or fate, then you'll be able to move on." Kiba turns his head to the side before saying to himself, "I can't believe I'm giving love advice. Seriously, what has this world come to." He turns to me and adds, "And I thought you never had trouble getting the guy you wanted? You're Yamanaka Ino, aren't you?"

I scoff, and ask sarcastically, "Right, because I totally got Sasuke when I wanted him, didn't I?"

Kiba grins, "That one is an exception. Mostly because Sasuke isn't like other guys."

"Apparently neither is the guy I'm interested in right now."

Kiba shrugs, "You'd be surprised."

"Actually, there are a lot of guys who would never be interested in me. Starting with all the guys in this village."

Placing a wad of coins onto the counter, Kiba takes the vase—with the bouquet inside of it—in one hand and stuffs his free hand in his pocket. He winks and repeats, "You'd be surprised," before walking out of the shop.

What kind of advice was that? I can't wait for time to heal me! Any more time spent like this and I think I'll go crazy—that is, if I'm not already. I groan, slamming my head onto my forearms that are lying on the counter. And that other suggestion—where in the world could I find another guy? All the guys coming into my head are either my friends, or like brothers to me. It's just not possible.

I stop thinking for a moment and return to my absentmindedness before thinking back to Naruto. I wish he and I were alone again, before things became complicated. I trace my finger on the counter over invisible lines and think of our mission we spent together and the time he came to my favourite place. He promised he was here for me now and I wouldn't feel lonely.

He didn't keep his promise.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Ugh guys I go back to school soon... It might be hard for me to continue writing then. Especially since I've been progressing the story very slowly, trying to keep it real, ya know? ;)_

 _ **REVIEW!** I'd love to hear about your predictions on what's to come (this is a cheap trick to help with writers block lmao sorry not sorry). But anyway, I truly appreciate your reviews a lot, tahnk you for encouraging me to continue doing what I love! I love you guys! Let's try to no lose the inspiration or interest in this story, alright? ;) Thank you again for reading!_

 _Special shoutout to kazorashi, madeyemoody95, Nemo (guest user) for reviews that made my day. Every review means a lot to me, but these ones just made me so happy, I don't know how to thank you enough._


	12. Honesty is the Best Policy

**A/N:** _I know a lot of you guys are complaining about last chapter so I just want to put this out there, if that's okay. I didn't intend for Kiba to seem like a new love interest, I was trying to keep him in character. Also, by him giving her her "only two options other than facing the truth", she'd realise which one is her best option (cough confessing cough) and it's going to push her even more towards Naruto. (And remember, Ino sees Kiba as a little brother.)_

 _And yeah, sorry for dragging out the story by making things more complicated, I just really love this story and don't want it to end soon, but I guess I messed up. This is how great stories turn out to fail, lol. But yeah, I hope you guys can understand, and I'm going to push the story along a little quicker, and it might seem a little rushed, but I mean, after all this time since Naruto has come back, I think it's fair to assume the feelings didn't just come out of no where._

 _I understand if you've given up on this story, but thank you for starting the journey with me anyway :P In the future, I'll try to keep in mind my mistakes hahah. For now, let's see where the story takes us :)_

 _And also, thank you guys for helping me. I really appreciate your input and I take your suggestions into serious consideration. So with that, let's get started with this chapter! (Hopefully you won't be disappointed ;))_

* * *

I spent the rest of the week keeping myself busy. I worked at the shop, went on a mission with the team, got some cooking lessons from Tenten, did a little bit of training, and some other stuff here and there. Even so, my mind kept going back. Naruto was right about women overthinking.

Shikamaru told me that maybe the only way to truly end this self-torment is to hear Naruto himself reject me, then there would be no hope at all for me to cling on. I know he keeps telling me to tell Naruto, but I'm really scared for that particular rejection. Kiba was also right, I'm Ino Yamanaka, and I hate losing, and rejection is not my style.

But wait, I'm not just going to follow the guys' advice, my own advice was what I needed to hear as well. After talking to Hinata and Sakura about it, it just seems like things are beginning to become clearer, rather than more muddled. I realize now that I can't wait any longer. I waited too long, and the longer I wait, the more miserable I will be and the more he'll slip away.

So here I am, sitting on a hill, sipping a cup of tea, and enjoying the brisk autumn wind Tenten. Maybe it's the calm of the day mixed with the tea that is pushing me to come clean. I used to think that the less people knew about my feelings then the easier it would be for me to move on, but now, I don't want to move on. I want to be honest.

It feels as though the wind is pushing me to it, and I let it.

"Tenten, I have something I need to get off my chest," I begin, gripping my teacup a little tighter with both hands.

Tenten raises a brow and asks suspiciously, "What is it?"

"There's something that's been on my mind since Naruto came back—actually no, before then. I tried to stop it, but I'm so tired of trying and failing to do so. And you've been such a comforting figure through all of this that I think it's fair to tell you," I pause and have to look down at my tea, "That I… I have feelings for…" I almost can't finish it, my throat feels dry, like it's weird to say these words aloud.

"That you like Naruto?" Tenten finishes.

I look to her with wide eyes, "But—What? How did you…?"

"Well I mean," Tenten diverts her eyes, as though she's known all along. "I kind of put two and two together. You acted funny for a long time, you didn't seem excited for Hinata the same was Sakura and I were, you didn't really participate in trying to get them together either, but you seemed happy or acted a lot different whenever Naruto was around, and not to mention, you cried when he broke his ankle."

A massive blush spreads across my cheeks, "I guess I didn't do as well of a job as I thought I did hiding it, huh?"

"People don't usually cry when their 'acquaintance at best' breaks his ankle." Tenten teases.

"Is that when you realized it?"

"Pretty much... I came after you to tell you to just be you because I wanted you to be able to figure things out. I'm guessing you have…? I'm hoping you have, anyway." Tenten states, taking a sip of her tea. "Do Sakura and Hinata know?"

I sigh, "Hinata figured it out before I even cried for his minor injuries. Sakura… I don't know."

"Hm," Tenten nods her head. She looks up at the clouds for a long time before saying, "I think you and I both know that Sakura doesn't love Naruto. She may have feelings for him, but it's not romantic. I think, maybe—"

"That she misses his attention?" I finish. "Yeah, I told her that, and she agreed, but I think she's trying to figure it out for herself whether or not she does have romantic feelings."

Tenten scoffs, "Ino, when have you ever sat back and let Sakura win over you in anything?" Before I can answer, she continues, "I don't think it's fair for Sakura to try something like that with Naruto. He was finally moving on but she kind of pulled him back. We all know those two could never work. What if Sasuke ever came back to the village? Sakura would go back to her old self and leave Naruto in a pile of dust—having lost his chance with Hinata and by that point giving up on anyone else but her. Do you really want that?"

"I think it's up to Naruto what he decides to do and who he decides to be with."

"Well, when you think about it, Naruto is a people pleaser—kind of like you. He's only going to look at Hinata and Sakura because they expressed their intentions. He sees that he only has two options because if he were to look at someone who hasn't been honest about her intentions, it would hurt two people and not just one. Do you understand?"

My eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, "No, I don't understand."

"It means that Naruto doesn't know that he would be hurting you as well if he were to choose one of them. Right now, he thinks Sakura and Hinata are the only ones who care."

"But then, if I were to tell him he'd be hurting two people, then wouldn't that make things harder for him?"

Tenten taps her chin, "Yeah, it would make things harder, but at the same time, it would make it easier. Because at that point, all the cards would be out on the table, being played. It's honest, and I think that's the best way to go. I think Naruto would appreciate it that way."

I sigh, "Yeah, I know. That's why I want to be honest, I just don't know how to be."

Tenten looks over my shoulder and whispers, "Speaking of the devil,"

I turn around to see Naruto making his way up the hill. His cast and sling are gone, his injuries healed in just a week. He's grinning like a child as he approaches us, lifting a hand in greeting while saying, "Yo!"

"Hey, Naruto," Tenten greets.

I turn back to her with a horrified expression but she glares at me to speak. I lift my head to see him directly behind me, staring down at me. I smile, "Oh, hi, Naruto…"

"I see your leg's better," Tenten observes.

"You bet," Naruto shakes his left leg to prove it. "Anyway, I was looking for you all week, Ino. It's like you went into hibernation or something this week."

"Me?" I ask, pointing at my face.

Naruto nods and crouches down so we're eye-level. He grins and says, "Remember when you took me to your favourite place? I told you I'd take you to mine, didn't I? So you wanna go now?"

I'm surprised he even remembers. I peek at Tenten who is nodding her head eagerly, and I just know she's thinking this is the perfect opportunity. I turn back to the grinning Naruto who's staring expectantly at me. "Sure?"

"Great!" Naruto grabs my wrist and pulls us up and heads down the hill. He calls over his shoulder, "See you later, Tenten!"

I slap Naruto's forearm until he finally lets go of my wrist, "You idiot! Why are you in such a rush? You left Tenten to clean up the picnic mess all on her own!"

"Oh, yeah," Naruto says as though he hadn't thought of it, but he shrugs, and grins again, "I'm just excited! Come on, let's go faster!"

I groan and try to keep up with Naruto. We head west, past the hospital, and I suspect I know where we're headed. I feel my eye twitch just at the thought, "Naruto, I swear if you're taking me to the ramen stand-"

"Don't worry about it," Naruto interrupts. I look over to see him with a small smile on his face, filled with anticipation. I'm relieved when we pass the ramen stand, but grow more curious as we go. Perhaps he's leading us to the hot springs? The only other place in this direction is the hokage office.

We pass the hot springs.

"Naruto," I whine, "Just tell me where we're going already."

Naruto snickers, "We're almost there."

Sure enough, we arrive at the hokage office. I don't mean to be rude, so I don't voice my thoughts, but seriously? What's so special about the hokage office? I turn to Naruto with a questioning look, "So this is it?"

Naruto smirks, "Not exactly."

He takes my wrist again, despite my complaints, and leads me around the building. Now I understand. I look up at the five faces of our village's hokages. I feel my face soften, and I turn to Naruto, "Naruto…"

"Wait, this isn't even it yet." Naruto says, pointing towards the stairs, "We're gonna go up."

"Wait a minute, look at how many stairs there are!" I say, feeling reluctant.

"You have chakra," Naruto simply states, already getting started on the climb. He looks at me—standing at the bottom of the stairs, still a little apprehensive—and says, "Come one, you won't regret it."

I sigh and chase after him. I use chakra like he suggested and we both get to the top speedily, although it's still quite troublesome. I stand at the top of the stairs, catching my breath while Naruto is a few steps ahead, his body turned towards the village. I stand next to him and finally understand why this is his favourite place. The view is amazing, who knew our little village was so beautiful? I always knew this place existed, I just never bothered to come up.

"Wow…" I comment breathlessly. Staring down at the village causes memories to flood back. I can see just about everything, from the restaurants to the training grounds. "Oh, look! There's the flower shop!" I point at it and turn to Naruto, who follows my finger and shares my excitement.

"Isn't it great?" Naruto asks. He moves to the edge and takes a seat. This could be viewed as dangerous, but this is Naruto.

"It's amazing," I say, taking a seat next to him.

"You wanna know why it's my favourite place?"

"The view?"

"Kind of," Naruto leans back on his hands and sighs, "I spent a lot of time here during our academy days. Seeing all the villagers below just made the village look a lot more alive than just walking through town. It gets even better in the night, actually. Somehow, I'm always alone when I come up here. I like it that way, it makes it feel as though this place is mine."

"Well that's too bad, because I intend on coming here more often." I state defiantly.

"I wouldn't mind your company," Naruto says, then laughs to himself, "Man, the amount of times I've vandalized this place is a little ridiculous. It's funny, but at the same time, I feel kind of bad about that."

"Ugh, I remember that," I say, rolling my eyes. "It made me so angry. I remember wondering how you could disrespect our hokages like that."

Naruto shrugs, "I don't know."

We sit for a while and try to spot our friends. It feels nice to just talk and not worry. When we're together, things feel easy. I'm glad Naruto feels that way as well.

"You know," Naruto says suddenly, "One of these days I'm going to become hokage."

"Yeah, then someone new can vandalize your face," I joke.

"I don't care, I'm going to protect this village. That's all that matters."

I blink, surprised by his seriousness. "But why? This village… It didn't treat you well when you were young… Why would you want to protect it?"

"To prove to everyone that I can do it. That I'm strong enough to protect them. There are more reasons, but the point is that I set that as my goal and it's going to be what I work towards in life." Naruto snickers, "Life would be pointless if we didn't have goals, right?"

I nod in understanding, but… What are my goals?

I really do like the vacancy of this place. I try to take it all in, the view, the fresh breeze, just everything about it. I turn to Naruto, a spurt of courage rising within me. "Naruto, there's something I want to say to you."

"Hm?" Naruto turns to me curiously, "What is it?"

"You're the best." I say, surprising myself and him. My mouth seems to have a mind of its own as it continues, "I trust you. If you say you're going to become hokage, I know you will. I just know it."

"Really? Thanks, Ino!" Naruto has a huge smile, touched at my words. "That means a lot."

I nod, then turn to look back at the village. Somehow, time moves quickly and the sun begins to set, creating a beautiful display of colors in the sky. I almost told him how I feel. I didn't do it, but I can feel myself getting closer to it. The more time I spend with him, the more I want to say it. I want to be selfish this one time.

"Naruto," I say again, still a little unsure. "There's something else I need to say to you."

Naruto turns to me expectantly and I can hear my heart beating as though it's about to jump out of my ribcage, but this time, I can't hold back. No, I won't be weak.

I look up directly into Naruto's eyes and let it out, "I like you."

I don't know what I expect. Him to brush it off and think I mean it as a friend and be the dense guy he is? Or for him to say it back? I don't know. His eyebrows jump up for a moment, but his expression remains unreadable. I don't even know what else to say. If I open my mouth again, I'm afraid I'll vomit. But this is it, I've done it. There's no going back.

We sit there staring at each other for a long time. My eyes beg me to look away but my mind refuses to lose this stare down. But I can't take it any longer, and turn away. I clear my throat and rise to my feet, "I should go. My dad's on a mission, so I'm in charge of the shop and house."

As I turn to go, I feel Naruto's hand grip my wrist. My breath catches, and I look back down at him. He's not smiling, but his expression isn't one that's turning me down, either. He says, "Let's go somewhere."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm so tired of thinking." Naruto states, climbing to his feet as well. "I wanna do something. Let's go. Get out of town and don't look back."

"Naruto-"

"Come on." Naruto says. His voice is vacant, but there's urgency in it as well. "Just us."

I don't know what causes me to jump on his crazy train, but I nod and say weakly, "Okay."

He doesn't even address my confession, and it makes me wonder if I'd confessed at all or if it was just my imagination. Part of me expects to wake up and realize that this is all a dream. Even when I trip over my feet on the way to the stairs, I almost don't feel the ground beneath me. No, it's real. If it wasn't, then I would force myself to wake up.

We climb down the stairs, then Naruto instructs me to meet him at the gates in one hour. I nod in understanding, heading home to grab essential clothing and items. I know it's crazy, but there's a thrill in this. Naruto's tired of thinking? Well so am I. For now, no one else exists. Nothing else matters. It's just us.

I make sure to lock everything before heading out. It's night now, and I'm sneaking out of a vacant house, on my way to meet Naruto and go somewhere—anywhere, but not here. I wouldn't have expected this outcome at all.

"Ino," Naruto calls out in the night. I turn to see his form approaching. When he reaches me, he runs a hand through his hair and asks, "Ready?"

I nod, and we exit the gates as stealthily as we can. When we're far enough away from the village, I ask Naruto, "Where are we going?"

Naruto shrugs, "I didn't think about it."

"Naruto," I groan, "We can't just sneak out in the middle of the night without a destination in mind."

"Okay, then how about we go back to Shukuba Town," Naruto suggests.

Sense is beginning to return to me, so I stop in my tracks, causing Naruto to stop as well. I look down at the ground as I speak, "Naruto, what are we doing?"

Naruto shuts his eyes for a long moment, "Well, you're thinking. That's what I don't want to do."

"You don't have to think, but you need a plan." I state, feeling the thrill leave me.

Naruto sighs, "'kay."

Okay, well, there goes all the fun. I turn right around, heading back to Konoha. I can hear Naruto calling out to me, but what's the point in following him to nowhere? I just told him that I like him, and all he wants to do is run away. And to where? He doesn't care. He doesn't care whether I'm with him or not. What the hell was I thinking? How could I be so stupid? Why couldn't he just outright reject me instead of doing this?

I don't even realize I'm crying until I feel something wipe against my cheek. I nearly growl at the gesture, but Naruto doesn't flinch, and continues to wipe my face with his sleeve. I slap it away and turn to him with a glare, "Do you think my feelings are a joke?! That you can laugh in my face because you know how much I care?! Naruto, I like you! You idiot! But sometimes I feel like I hate you more!"

"Ino," Naruto says in his vacant voice, only making me angrier.

"I waited for you, you know. Hinata wasn't the only one counting the days. I _missed_ you. You were annoying but you were familiar and in ways that I can't describe, I needed that. You're stupid sometimes but you're the kindest, strongest, and bravest guy I know. I hate that I can't compare to you or to the other girls who feel the same way as me, but I just wish that you would acknowledge the years I spent devoted to you! Not Sasuke, not some other insignificant boy from the village, but you! I don't know why but it's _you_! Goddamn it Naruto!"

"I can't respond to your confession, Ino, because I'm still trying to work things out in my head!" Naruto snaps. "What am I supposed to do? I care so much for all of my friends, and now three of them say they like me? I hate it, too, you know. I don't want to be in this position! You don't know why you like me? Well I don't know either."

"Do you even know how hard it was to finally confess? I put you first because I wanted to be honest." I scoff, "You said girls over think? What about you? What are you so afraid of that you're so indecisive?"

Naruto is silent, but I can read the answer on his face. He's scared of making a mistake.

"Naruto, forget about this stupid situation for a minute," I say, my voice finally calm, the tears pausing. "Can you be honest with me? Please?"

Naruto sighs, running a hand through his hair. This is definitely a new habit of his, possibly one that I created. "Okay. Honestly? Between Hinata and Sakura, I felt like I had to make a choice—one or the other. But I was putting it off for a lot of reasons, one of them being that I just don't want to. I asked you if it was possible to fall in love with two people. The truth is that… I don't know if I've ever really fallen in love. Yeah, maybe I was crazy for Sakura, but she didn't feel the same way. I want to fall in love in a way where I can't control myself, I'm so in love. I want to have something where the feelings are met halfway. And… I don't think I could get that from either Sakura or Hinata."

"..." I feel a blush creeps its way onto my cheeks but I can't be weak or flustered now. "What about... me?"

Naruto once again runs a hand through his hair, "I don't think I'm ready to tell you. Really. I haven't figured it out. Honest."

I nod and after a few moments wipe my tearstreaked face, before saying, "If that's how you truly feel, you need to let them know."

"I know. I just haven't been able to figure out how. I still don't want to hurt them..."

"Well, I've been told that there are two ways to move on. Let nature take its course, or find someone new."

"You want me to bring back Sasuke?" Naruto asks. "Look, I'm gonna try as hard as I can, but I can't guarantee it or predict how long it'll take."

" _Or_ ," I drag out the word, "We could have Hinata move on and Sakura be the one to have nature take its course."

Naruto looks confused, "What do you mean? Hinata's liked me since forever. It's not going to be easy for that to happen."

"Yeah, but Hinata's also a lot stronger than she looks—a lot stronger than me. When it's time to move on, she'll do it."

"You're kinda scary, you know that?"

"I think we should head back to the village." I simply state, feeling exhausted.

"Hey, we could still go to Shukuba Town!"

"I'm about to pass out, I've had enough Naruto for one day."

"Sure you have," Naruto wiggles his eyebrows teasingly.

I groan and punch him in the stomach, "If you ever try to make fun of me for liking you again, you won't ever be able to make fun again, you got it?"

Naruto rolls his eyes, "Yeah whatever, let's go back into town."

"My dad knows where you live, Uzumaki!"

Naruto gulps, and I laugh in victory. I honestly don't know how the night came to this. How did things go this far? And yet… I got more than I could have hoped for, but not enough to completely ease me. For now, we'll start with this. I think both Naruto and I would both like the take things easy for now and keep it simple. I'll wait for him, so long as he remains honest along the way. I know a thing or two about devotion, don't I?

* * *

 **A/N:** _Naruto's not necessarily afraid of Inoichi because he knows Inoichi would never actually hurt him (and Naruto doesn't fight people back who don't intend on really hurting him)._

 _Review to let me know how the story is going and hopefully give me tips to improve._

 _I've started school so I'm probably going to focus on that primarily. Idk how much motivation I have, tbh. Looking back, however, I write 5 chapters this past month, approximately 20,000 words. I'm beat. This is just a warning that this story might once again go on hiatus._


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